Cat's Rants - Confessions of an Occult Mastermind

The "Spiritual Body" (sometimes called the "Etheric Body")

Hello my dear occulties,

Today I'd like to discuss a topic which has come up frequently in the last few weeks betwixt myself and many different people (many of which have no contact with each other, so I take this as a sign discuss this with my dearest readers.)

Now, let's start with stating the obvious, - if you are reading this, you are probably sitting in a machine made of meat and bone and fat, and that thing is called your body. If you are like most (if not all) incarnate (has a body) creatures, you value this meat machine very dearly as it is what keeps you functioning and alive on this plane. You experience physical sensations of pain when you damage it, or overextend it, senses of pleasure when you feed it, or nourish it in any way, or try to reproduce (even with yourself lol) with it. This is because this wonderful machine that your life force (or what you may term your spirit, or your soul,) has been created to ensure you treat it as well as possible so it might run as long as possible (otherwise known as it avoids becoming no longer operable, which means you die when that happens,) and because this machine requires you to help it replicate itself, it is also very good at trying to get you to make more of these machines. So, we all agree that we have a physical body and presumably many of us understand it's basic functions exist to help it stay working as long as possible, while also trying to get us to make more of these bodies for other beings like ourselves to continue on our line. 

Your body may be faulted or have some defects from birth. There are so many of these, that I can't list all of them. This does not mean that your physical body does not attempt in some way to still run. It's a machine, and missing a few "gears" or "screws" is something it still very much wants to try to overcome. You body may have suffered serious damages - maybe you lost an eye or a leg or an ear. It still wants to run as long as it can, so this does not mean it does not mostly function (and you may even have "phantom pains" sensing the lost part for those missing a body part,) which again, most of my readers would agree this is how this works. Maybe you have had some malfunctions which are comparable to a bug in your program. You have an immunodeficiency that causes you issues, or a cancer, or many other issues which start because something caused the "programming" in your machine to malfunction, and this causes you issues which can range from things you can't detect, to actually completely destroying your body and making it inoperable. Maybe you were born with your "programming" having this malfunction, or perhaps it came after your creation. You may even just have inherited better or worse "versions" of necessary hardware or software - everyone in your family needs reading glasses by age 20, or you all have really short legs, or like me, you don't tan, just burn. Perhaps you are even worried that because you have a particular family issue, that you will make children with the same issue, or because you were exposed to something that your offspring will be in some way handicapped and science has proven there is a good chance of it, so you avoid reproducing to avoid giving your offspring this weakness, ergo ensuring more "perfect human machines" continue on, even if not of your line. 

Again, we understand that bodies are different, that some age better or worse, or have a higher probability of coming down with a condition and that some people are born disabled, etc. So taking all of this knowledge in, I want you to understand...you also have very similar benefits and issues with your SPIRITUAL BODY. 

Let us not confuse the spiritual body with an aura. They can look very similar, but your aura is in part the "glow" of your meat machine working. So while the spiritual body can sometimes be seen with the aura, there are people (as scary as this is,) basically walking around with a dead spirit body. That is contested, but I insist it is so. 

Let me explain that in a bit.

Your spirit body looks very much like you. In fact it may look just like you. It may look like an older or younger version of you. If you have lost a limb, your spirit body generally still has that limb. If you are beset with a disfiguring condition, it may appear as you without this condition, and if you are at the peak of your beauty, it may look like a disfigured version of you. Why? The spirit body has its own health and its own needs. It very much can and does affect your physical body, just as your physical body can have an effect on it. It can heal faster and easier at times than the physical body, and vice versa. 

Think of the story of Dorian Grey. If you are unfamiliar with this story, Dorian Grey is a lovely young man who has a portrait done of him at the peak of his beauty. Then Dorian gives into every gross urge of lust and anger and murder and cruelty and for decades - every vice imaginable! But his form never ages a day while the Dorian in the portrait ages terribly with every sin. He hides the portrait away of course, but in the end it is found and destroyed and the physical Dorian becomes the monster in the picture and then himself dies as I remember. This story, written by Oscar Wilde is a good parable about the spiritual body (which the portrait represents) and the physical body wrapped up in a "scary story" for the masses. 

Please understand, I am a believer that many of our ideas of "proper behavior" are rooted in the times we live in more than what is moral or immoral to the spirit. So if you're wearing pasties and a g string out on the town tonight, I don't know as I believe that has any bearing on your spiritual health although there are people who will think you're an immoral strumpet and trash and all that. You were born naked and I have no belief that clothing has any bearing on the health of your spirit or else you'd be born in clothing. 

Instead think more like...if you kill someone for fun - not to defend yourself - this is a senseless awful thing which not only harms the species by your destruction of one of our valuable meat machines, but also harms our line as a whole as the spiritual body is quite connected and needs (on our end of things - you may or may not believe that a higher power exists, but for me, I believe God to be the creator of souls,) the couplings that physical body may have made to attach new spirit bodies (or existing ones if you believe in reincarnation) to, and that means you are also committing the same crime on the spiritual plane. The being does not necessarily cease to exist spiritually (again this is all religious/spiritual beliefs that may vary,) but you have stolen from it the option of making more of itself. This crime - killing another being for fun, - may, therefore, affect the health of your spiritual body. It most likely does cause it a fair amount of harm, especially when what you have killed purely for enjoyment is a member of your own species. 

"But, Cat," you interject, "Only someone with horrible psychological problems does such a thing." Correct! But of course some of those problems are caused by illness in the spirit body, - some inherited through abuse, some inherited by bad actions of the parents, and sometimes acquired through smaller and lesser harmful actions to the spiritual body, much like a bad habit may endanger and even kill the physical body. 

Have you ever heard the term "sins of the father" - sometimes called "original sin"? This is an interesting thing...basically, it's supposed to mean that I still carry the sin of my parents bumping uglies at birth. Ha! Sex makes babies so sex itself is not really a sin! Both your physical and spirit bodies want to make more of you even if it's not physically possible (for example, a same sex union of cis-gendered people - at least at this writing, - cannot produce a child made from both parents.) However - am I conceived by betrayal? I am not, but for example a woman seeking to end another woman's marriage by taking her husband would have now passed on a spiritual debit to a child born of this union. It's like the spirit equivalent of that mother drinking a gallon of whiskey a day or something. And people can and will get mad at me for saying that, but then they will be people who did that who say it and of course the truth hurts. :P This is why when you come to me with break up stuff and all that I always want to check to see if the couple you want broken up is or isn't married (which has zero to do with legally married, as your spirit gives not one fuck about the laws of man,) because if a couple is spiritually married, you are asking something which can cause great harm to yourself as well as any offspring. If you didn't know that your partner was married or even with another, then you would be innocent and the spiritual body receives little or no damage, though, interestingly enough, ergo making the offspring safe from damage. It's amazingly complex and that's just one of many "moral" actions which effect the spiritual body. Each of these is its own topic entirely...and just as biology is sexist and only those of us born with a working uterus get monthly cramps and bleeding similarly there are even issues which only the male or female spiritual body are affected by. 

Now I'm sure a few of my readers are already having meltdowns and if so, please excuse yourselves from reading further. ;) The topic of the spiritual body is, in fact, one I've researched and spoken of with people of many spiritual and religious backgrounds, so I have a passion for the topic. Just because you did something that you realize probably got you down with the spiritual sickness, or you just had some religious background that scared you into thinking maybe you did, that's your issue, not ours. I repeat again that much of what our society calls moral or immoral has more to do with culture than with your spiritual health so there is a good chance what is sinful according to a specific religion's teaching really is not bad for your spiritual health. Relax.

Because there are also spiritual conditions that come on you that cause damage to your spiritual body which are more than likely not your fault at all...nor that of your parents, nor their parents etc. Like depression. This affects both physical you, and spiritual you. This isn't some sort of divine retribution for wrongdoing any time you come down with one of these conditions. However, treating this condition - both physically and spiritually, can permanently change your spiritual health in very positive ways. 

The best thing for all of us to keep in mind is that the spiritual body is important and has its own health and needs just like our meat machine. So just like if I live off of Doritos for my whole life and eat nothing else then I won't likely live long, so is it that if you do not treat your spiritual body with care, it can also deplete and even die off from too many abuses. It also thrives when we treat it kindly and nourish it...but just like the physical body, we cannot repel all damage just from treating the spiritual body as well as possible. AND always keep in mind that the spirit body and physical body are very tightly linked and if one is sick, the other often can follow and become sick as well. 

How do we nourish our spiritual body? Well...again, this will sound a bit like dogma but loyalty, and kindness, and helping others, and charity, and all that goody-two-shoes stuff helps. Prayer or recognition of your own blessings if you do not pray, thankfulness and gratitude nourish us. Loving others and being loved can be very nourishing, while losing our loved ones to death or disaster can harm us dearly. Our spiritual bodies connect to others - to our families (which can be - but is not always - parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course our children,) or those we truly and deeply love (our partner, our best friend, etc,) which is why there is a pain that always remains when we lose them. If you truly and deeply love anything then you know when it is lost, you never 100% get over it. This is why grief over loss of of a loved one sometimes never ever goes away. It causes the same damage as losing a limb causes to your physical body. You can randomly experience pain like "phantom limb pain" as your spirit body looks for the connection for the rest of your life. But, while that sounds scary, the gift of the love bond itself nourishes your spirit body greatly. So...love both makes us stronger and gives us a wound to our spirit body. 

Even joy and satisfaction nourish us. So healthy food for your spirit body abounds. 

But that which will mortally wound and permanently disfigure, or cause long term damage to your spiritual body is also around you. And yes, that's a thing. You can expose yourself to things so negative they can have consequences which impact your offspring for a few generations which we are proving via science this happens to our physical bodies too. For example, those people who survived the prison camps in World War 2 have offspring who displayed a genetic mutation with metabolism from the starvation and stress of the parents in the prison camps, and even the grandchildren of these people have show the SAME MUTATION. My personal belief is that just as we have a physical DNA, so does our spiritual body have some form of DNA. So like probably everyone reading this, I may very well have some natural, inherited spiritual body defects and benefits because my ancestors gave me this gene spiritually. Again, the idea of "sins of the father" affecting the child holds. 

Keep in mind, this inherited damage may also not be a choice. Just as you may be killed in a vehicular accident wherein no driver involved had any intention to harm, nor was anyone operating their vehicle while intoxicated or while knowing it had known malfunctions (including yourself, of course), so can you accrue damages which are neither your fault nor deserved. The same is true of beneficial conditions. Perhaps you did nothing to "deserve" the boon to your spiritual health, and yet you were fortunate to receive. 

And what of magic? Well, you know I'm not the karma police. I'm not here to tell you no. I'm not here to tell you yes either. In fact, if I'd punch you right in the face without a shred of guilt to my conscience, I'd probably curse you just as quick and without guilt. Does that make me spiritually diseased? My experience is that most spellcasters who successfully curse do so because the target is a piece of fucking shit. The target is not just asking for it, they are antagonizing the spellcaster or harming someone or something that he or she loves. The spellcaster isn't splitting up a marriage to steal away the partner for selfish gains. The spellcaster is not harming innocents. They are not just doing it to feel powerful. It's much more comparable to having a neighbor who keeps slapping your kid for just playing in your own yard, and punching that neighbor for the attacks on your child than trying to harm someone to steal something from them or to make yourself more powerful. So if you accrue damage spiritually from cursing, you are much more like to have done so because your actions are wholly selfish or unjust. 

And what if you were born to awful people? Is that your fault? Nope, that goes back to sins of the father. If your parents both come from a long line of bullshit people and conceived you into that line of DNA, what results might be compared to a physical deformity or unhealthy body or a disability of grand proportions despite you looking physically just fine. If you were given a decrepit spiritual body, you can nourish it and strengthen it, but yes, you may have a much harder time than some of your peers. It means you have to work extra hard. And the real kick in the butt is that you don't deserve that, and it may make you bitter, which in turn will warp that spiritual body - your bitterness is a poison to it. 

I'm just touching on this but I hope it's gotten some of you thinking. See, when a lot of you worry about "karma" (which has nothing to do with that which you do in this life effects you in this same life like some of you believe,) what you should worry about is "will this affect my spiritual health?" (which some of you mean but wrongly understand.) The answers are often that, at worst, it might give it a bruise that will heal rapidly but there are situations where you really may hurt yourself or possibly even generations of your line. So, I think this is a good topic to get people really thinking of the impact of their actions. 

And it's also a good thing - you might be able to heal damage to yourself and help your physical body heal faster (they constantly impact each other,) by merely understanding more about your spiritual body's health. 

Now I did mention above that I would discuss a very odd thing that can happen. Your spiritual body can - from what I can tell, - die with your physical body not dying. I'd swear I've even seen a few people with it. It's as if they "have no soul." I can think of one person in particular that I'd bet you money this person has no soul and yet physically they look rather healthy. Their actions bespeak a person who could not retain a spirit body. They come from a long line of people who spiritually are garbage from the history I know of them (it's not anyone widely known). I've never met another worker who when shown this person's image wasn't physically revolted, (and while not an attractive person, they are not so physically ugly as to cause revulsion), and so people with spiritual training are literally reacting as many of us do when we see maggots eating a corpse...which tells me they are spiritually revolting...if not just spiritually dead, this person is spiritually a gangrenous leper. And yet, while not an attractive person by any stretch of the imagination, still physically healthy with said unattractiveness not arising from physical illness of any kind. So, what exactly is this person? If the spirit is dead how then does the meat machine yet function and they remain intelligent enough to speak because the brain hasn't rotten...it even reasons... And there is more than one of these on the world. I don't know the singular dead alive thing in this world, and would tell you this isn't even likely as uncommon as you'd like to think. Serial killers are probably these things. A few seemingly nice normal people? They are these things. I don't know exactly what they are as it makes no sense that they physically live, but my best guess is they are a bit like malignant disincarnate spirits. Much like disincarnate spirits (malignant, beneficial, or neither bad nor good,) have greater power in the spiritual world than many of us physical beings can expect to have but have no or little physical power (so many have a hard time moving a light or small physical object,) so do these creatures seem to possess very little power spiritually and yet tend to give suffering to those they claim to care about the most - so they are not powerless. They may also possess great physical strength but they are very destructive creatures even if physically weak. They attack those closest to them, they isolate them, and try to survive off of them. My guess is that they are spiritual vampires of sorts and the physical body continues to survive by them draining and perverting the spiritual energy of those who they claim to "love." They are incapable of love judging from my observation of the handful I've come across, but they call possessiveness love. They really are repugnant and I've seen more than one albeit there is one which I've seen the most up close, and it's proven every theory I've had of their kind. So, if you find one of these, do not make friends. They seem rather charming at first. Much like any predatory thing, the charm is so it can feed. You soon realize it's a spiritual vacuum, but often too late and after it has taken so much of your spiritual health and energy. Maybe it even has you convinced you can't survive without it. You'll thrive without it.

You can laugh at that, but I've had a small share of clients who endured a relationship with one of these. They are not psychic vampires - that's someone who is just draining - they are something else entirely. BUT do not fear...they lack a spiritual body (or if they have one, it is so damaged and small as to be undetectable,) so if they are not feeding they are easily bested as they can't do magic without a healthy amount of spiritual energy, and even if currently acting parasitic on another is giving them some energy, their energy isn't their own and doesn't properly transmute, meaning....their magic sucks on it's best days and often blows up in their face. :D I am sure I will get some emails from people worried that they are these things... Look, they are rare. It's unlikely. If you've been a good person and have avoided obviously deeply immoral or hurtful actions (so you don't kill for pleasure, or break up happy homes, or hurt children or the weak or small animals because you're bored,) it's very unlikely. But yeah, I also find it scary that something spiritually dead can be physically alive, especially when in most people if they are very spiritually damaged, the physical body soon breaks down as well. It is scary, but all fictional monsters were borne from the real ones, so just avoid one of these things if you suspect you've come across one. You'll be fine.

Anyhow, that's enough on this topic for today. I will try to post a new spell article soon! 

~Cat

"Why are you picking a stupid fight you can't win?" and "Why can't you stop bringing up old shit!?" = Mars Retrograde at it's finest

Hey Occulties,

You would never have had to show me a chart to tell me it's Mars retrograde because as the title would tell you, the weaker-minded and more easily-influenced, the intellect-deprived, and the drama-lovin' stalkers are all out en masse picking fights they can't win or stirring up old ones they never settled. It's Mars retrograde, and that means some people are going to get their asses kicked, but is it ever positive? Because normally you know me, I'll enlighten you to how it can be positive. 

I mean...I do refer to it as "global PMS," as it kind of reminds me of just that. People are shorter tempered, many seem to not be able to let things go, and during a stressful season like the holidays, admittedly, it is more unpleasant because people are already stressed. I personally think the best part of Mars retrograde is the part where something disputed which you left unsettled has a stronger chance of being settled, although that can be really stressful on the conflict-avoidant among us. It can effect health and also libido (which are related obviously) so it might have a positive effect on that though it could also negatively impact either. Hmmm... it's a good time to buy used cars... It brings exes back but the big 3 of retrogrades (Mercury, Venus, Mars) all do. 

When we think of a retrograde, we need to remember a retrograde is revisiting, reviewing, and reworking things that fall under the sphere of influence of the planet which is retrograde. So Mars rules war, fighting, etc...and to a lesser extent, lust - BUT (and please take this into account) lust in the sexual sense is a lower urge that often carries greed (lust for material gains) and anger (lust for blood,) as well as other nasties with it when not worked with carefully and properly. If you've worked magic long enough you probably know someone who did a little overkill with red magic and had a huge fight with their beloved. Mars rules some aspects of health, iron, steel, and metal devices (including weapons) are ruled by mars, so I guess it's a great time to review your armory, get a health check up, and make sure your guns and knives are all in working order, while you revisit that spat you had with that person down the street...Hmm, well maybe you shouldn't go that far, ha ha.

It isn't Saturn retrograde where the problems that come out of that are what choices and contracts did you make that you now must hold to or very carefully release yourself from? Saturn retrograde has it's ability to really mess up people's obligations towards those in their lives (it's literally like a global midlife crisis - I would assume statistically this is when most men run off for a few months with a woman way too young for them, only for most to return crying to wifey when Saturn goes direct which it did almost a month ago.) This is more like..what fights did you pick in the past which were important enough that one or both parties are still very much concerned about the matter. Like not all things get settled with more fighting. I might still feel wronged about a situation, but more willing to discuss it and compromise. It does mean if you have a long standing beef, it (and the other party) may come up in the next several weeks. None of this is guaranteed to happen, though, so don't just assume that someone's going to demand justice for some deep dark wrong you've done because Mars is retrograde.

If you've already been looking over your shoulder, though, stay alert. And as far as your health, keep a close eye on long standing problems, as well as new symptoms. Be careful in motor vehicles as well during this time, and while it's common sense, be very careful around firearms as well. 

For most of us, the only noticeable impact of Mars Retrograde is everyone seems a little more cranky, though, so don't scare yourself thinking something bad will happen.

~Cat

Myth VS Reality

Hey Occulties,

Today, I'd like to discuss "wrong ideas" people get in their heads about spellwork, the occult, etc., which this is not really going to be a finite list or near to it, but definitely some of the things I currently see all too often. So in no numbered order, here are some myths that people need to stop believing:

Myth: I'm a "born witch!" By the virtue of being born and liking the moon and spooky things, I'm instantly magical!

Reality: This would be like saying you're a born brain surgeon because you think brains look cool, and then walking into an operating theater, and operating on someone's brain without ever having a single class in medicine or even a degree. You'd probably kill your patient. Or maybe you're a born engineer - never studied it for a single day, but you were born an engineer, so you start building a skyscraper, and it's hugely unstable and kills many people. But that's OK, because you were born naturally gifted with expertise without study or practice, right? 

That's what you sound like when you say you're naturally a witch. While I'd say some people will have more success and they might be gifted with an innate talent for magic, without years of practice and study, you are not a witch, or a sorcerer, or magician. Liking spooky stuff, the moon, or dressing goth does not have any relevance to your ability to cast spells whatsoever. On that note, stop posting "signs you're a natural witch," as anyone with even the slightest iota of a background in the occult is making fun of you behind your back if you do, and certainly would not take you seriously for some time after posting such a thing. It may surprise you, but I actually know a great deal of magicians who look more like a soccer mom than something from a B-horror movie.

Myth: Love spells are "evil" and "unethical."

Reality: I suppose it is not my place to dictate what you or anyone else finds repugnant or inappropriate. And since I'm writing this out for my class (and I hear it from the members of the peanut gallery every time I run a class on love spells,) I might as well say it here... For starters, MOST people who say that love spells are unethical also believe that people can create "love zombies" and/or can successfully do a working in which beautiful people (generally women) will instantly get into position for a sexual encounter, regardless of where they are, and having never met the practitioner by the practitioner just using some sort of mystical chant or something (and yes, if you're curious, people who think this type of working exists generally are Incels.)

The reality is that even if you're quite good at love workings, that if the relationship is not compatible, it will eventually fall apart. I liken it to breaking a lamp. The first time you break it and glue it back together, you can't even tell you broke it. The 5th time you break it and glue it back together, it's hugely unstable and looks awful. The seventh time you break it, you can't even get it to hold together. I mean, I understand, sometimes you'd be great together, except this one thing that seems trivial to you. He doesn't like your job, or she doesn't think she can move to Pittsburgh and long distance isn't working. So you change your job, and you try to entice her to move to Pittsburgh with offers of everything she ever wanted and more, and it still keeps hitting a wall. And if it DOES keep hitting a wall, there does come a time to give up. If you love that person or ever did, you will want to. If you just want to "win" you will keep going until nothing you can do magically can convince them to ever come back. So if love zombies existed (people that are your slave because you put a spell on them,) drawing them to you would be all you ever had to do. There would be no return to me spellwork needed. But, nope, that's not how it works. You're working on a human being, and that human being never stops being capable of having their own motives, or making their own decisions. I'm not saying that you can't really do some impressive work on them and see very clear and visible proof of your own ability to influence them with your spellwork - definitely you can, - I'm saying that at the heart of it all, they are still themselves (so you won't change their core personality,) and are still capable of taking actions and making decisions that you may not like. Clearly, they could not be your "puppet" or "zombie" then. You can't "force" them to be with you and stay with you, you are using spells to create a situation where you can nurture love or restore your relationship, you are influencing them to be desiring you or staying with you or returning with you - but if you do nothing in the mundane to keep the relationship working, or if you are not compatible, they will eventually leave. 

The idea that it is conniving and evil can also sprout from the idea that influencing another with the use of magic is inherently wrong (though surprisingly no one cares about influencing someone to hire you for a job, it's just in regards to love.) Well, I'm fine with people feeling this way, it's when they get up on a soapbox and criticize others...because the reality is that all of us are sneaky and use many non-magical things to persuade a desired mate to want to get naked with us and love us, and these people who criticize the use of magic are doing those sneaky things too. I mean, when I met Mr NInjaCat, he himself would admit that my gigantic knockers played a part in me catching his eye and coming to speak with me. I was wearing a low cut shirt, too, and I was not and am not unaware that wearing a low cut top can attract the eyes of men. Is this a magical power? While I'd love to tell you that I have magical titties (because that would be hilarious,) the reality is that I was using my figure to influence men to speak to me. In fact, the way men and women dress is them influencing others around them to perceive them in a certain manner, so if you feel badly about influencing people, I suppose, you pretty much should only show yourself from the chin up and through video probably at this point, so we have no idea of what you're wearing. And when I'd been dating Mr NinjaCat for about a week, he hid a rose in the kitchen the night before that I would find when I got up for work. This is also a form of influence. He's leaving me pointless gifts so that I know he is thinking about me and wants me to smile, which is going to make me start feeling love feelings (instead of just lust, because Mr NC was FINE AF and I would be lying to say my attraction to him did not start almost entirely based on lust.) So I guess we can say you cannot buy any gifts for your prospective partner, either, since that's influencing someone and influencing someone in regards to love is evil. If you think that wearing clothes to highlight your figure or giving your maybe-girlfriend a rose is not evil, then congratulations, you probably won't find love spells evil either. You are INFLUENCING someone, not BRAINWASHING them when you use love work. AND, with all due respect to my own readers, several of you are newbies to spellwork, and whereas I might be able to get an ex acting wild with passionate lust, if your magical "muscles" are not yet all that strong...the same working might get you some flirting and not the follow through. I think people often overstate the power of a spell, because they just assume the person working it has been spellcasting a long time. I have seen some incredibly impressive outcomes with people new to spellwork, but at the same time, this isn't just saying words and making hand motions, and I've seen even more newbies get some result but not the strong one they'd hoped for. 

So are love spells evil? No, though I do concede that people sometimes overuse them when something is over (and frankly, most magicians have done so at least once,) and that they can be used with less-than-kind motives (like trying to draw someone back just so you can tell them to fuck off again.) If you personally find them distasteful, that's fine, but if you pontificate on how bad people are for using them, you may be more hypocritical than you realize in your own speeches. 

As for the "Make all hot bitches bend over and give up that azz because I say a certain chant," people, all I can say is please get some mental help, and it's not gonna happen, bro, and part of the reason women won't have sex with you is that you're a dreadful misogynistic jerk who is way too desperate. Everyone despises incels except other incels, and those are all dudes, so unless you like dudes in a sexy way, maybe you should try finding a new group to hang with, too. 

Myth: If I purchase this magical tool, I'm a magician/its inherent magical powers will work with absolutely no effort on my part!

Reality: The one I see most often is people who use condition oils (come to me, follow me boy, etc,) as a perfume, and yet never with intent (which would be laying a trick on yourself in some cases,) and it's no different than spraying yourself with Axe body spray and expecting it to make you irresistible to women. It won't. Condition oils are actually, for the most part, not perfumes. Some like Cleo May are meant to be used as so, but not most. If I want to curse the fuck out of people I don't put Black Arts oil on. If I want you to tell me the truth and have the truth blow up in your face, I don't put my Liar Liar Pants on Fire oil on myself (you can specifically request this recipe at Anubeion Creations, by the way, just go to custom oils, and ask for Cat's Liar Liar Pants on Fire.) If anything, I go out of my way to let neither black arts or liar liar touch my flesh. So why is it if you're trying to get someone to love you, you're wearing the condition oil? Should you not be putting that on something to represent the TARGET? Because yes, you should be putting it on something representing the target. You're already smitten, clearly, or else you would not be trying to attract that person. 

I realize that some of you are also huge Harry Potter fans, but you should know that a magic wand is for focusing the power that is coming from the magician holding it. It's directing the energy OF THE MAGICIAN, see, so you waving a wand about and saying stupid Latin phrases will not do anything other than make you look like you're doing Harry Potter cosplay, because pretty much that is all you are doing. 

It doesn't matter how many cool magician's tools you buy or own. If you don't know how to use them, it's no different than me owning a all the things I need to fix a car, but knowing nothing (including what a car looks like) about cars. It's pointless to have all these tools if you have no magical ability. In fact, it's 2000% more important to have the right knowledge and to have amazing skill than it is to have any magical tools at all. 

If you get yourself a $4000 beautiful bejeweled magical seal, all you're going to have is a beautiful piece of art if you don't know how to use it, - so stop, stop, stop, stop, stop getting fussy and assuming something doesn't work when often the case is you don't know how to work it and won't take the time to study and practice and know how.

Myth: Doing magic draws bad-luck and ill-fortune to you.

Considering one of the better known magical rituals in the western world is performed by Catholic priests and is meant to purify and bless the congregation (the Holy Mass,) I beg to differ. I can understand where this comes from...basically, one source is people who think that any magic takes away from reverence to God or trust in God, when I have seen no proof of this. If anything, it seems to strengthen faith. The other source would be people who performed rituals very wrong (either because they worked from a source which was itself quite wrong, or because they improvised when they have little to no practical knowledge of magic.) So, yeah, if you decide to call a spirit since that is the current "it's so cool" type of ritual (it comes from all of the possession and demon movies we have out in the past decade or more,) and you don't know what the fuck you're doing, you might regret that decision. A lot of the time, the spirit won't even show up. Why? Who the fuck are you, and why should they? If you have little to no ability, you are of no interest to most of the ones that are found in lists of spirits. You could be pretty interesting to something of a much lower order that feeds on your fears and is pretty awful (but if you like exorcism movies, you're in for a treat as you get something like that in your home!) Or you could be unintentionally rude (or just intentionally rude) to a very very powerful spirit and it decides that it will fuck your life up - and you can't exorcise those ones to my knowledge, you just have to appease them. 

If the above sounds really shitty, then maybe don't call spirits on a whim, and maybe work up to doing that sort of thing, so if something does go wrong, you can actually banish the spirit, oh and make sure you banish it. Even if you say it didn't show up, sometimes it did, and so you know, be sure to  tell it to leave but nicely. :)

If you do something wrong with SPIRITS, then hell yeah, you can have some bad luck and ill fortune. If you do a spell on a surface you haven't cleaned, you can combine energies unintentionally and that can suck. If you do not ritually bathe, you will begin to take on some of the energies of the spells you cast - it's sort of like when I worked in a sandwich shop and came home smelling like lunch meat, despite never eating there. 

But magic itself does not cause bad luck and ill fortune just for using it. It is the inept- and/or the lazy practitioner who draws those to themselves.

Myth: If I use reconciliation magic on a person, the love affair will be awful and it will be as if it is cursed.

Reality: Much like the above, this is either propaganda from people who dislike reconciliatory workings, OR this has happened because the petitioner did not work with the spell (or they are just incompatible.) I've seen countless reconciliation spells manifest and keep the happy couple together, often for many years (in more than one case they are still together to my knowledge after all these years.)

If you find reconciliation magic distasteful, you don't have to use it. That does not make it evil. 

Hopefully, this has cleared some stuff up. Til next time, lovies,

~Cat

 

Q&A: What sort of magical stuff goes on with Halloween?

Hey occulties,

Since I get this virtually every year, today I'm going to discuss the "magical provenance of Halloween." Let me smoosh this into a generic question (I've had SOOOO MANY of the same question for this every year, that I may as well,) and get discussing the topic.

Q: Is Halloween/Samhain like a super special day for magic or spirits or ghosts or something like that? Are there special rituals that I can do? 

A: Samhain is a harvest festival....think of it a bit more like a combination of modern Halloween and Canada and the USA's "Thanksgiving." It would basically mark the time where animals where slaughtered, and fields harvested (thus a feast,) to the cold part of the year where everything became "dead and dormant" until the winter solstice. So, this was the time that ancient people felt that veil between the living and the dead was at it's thinnest (you're culling your fields and animals, so there is a lot of other death going on, it's getting dark, and if you're having a big feast, you need to get your dead ancestors in on that, to honor them...so it makes sense that "death" and "dead" are a big part of this harvest festival.) This is kind of an armchair historian summary for you, so feel free to check out the Wikipedia for more info. Modern Halloween celebrations are also based on the Catholic "Day of the dead," - a day to honor all souls who are departed. 

But, let's digress a bit here.... The timing of this holiday has far more to do with what is going on in the field in the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, than it would in, say, Australia. ;) This is true of a lot of angloid/western holidays. The placement of Christmas on the calendar is actually based on the rebirth of the sun (winter solstice,) as Christ was probably born in September. 

So why is this important? Well, magically speaking, our ancient forebears actually would have based when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, or when a fertility festival, or a celebration of the sun's rebirth, or etc is best placed by the SEASONS and CONDITIONS OF THE EARTH AROUND THEM. In modern times, we attach certain energies to the seasons, definitely, by collectively celebrating holidays to mark these times of year which carry certain elements (I have annoyed more than one of you by telling you how my Australian grandma would say "Feels just like Christmas!" in July) but in a proper magical/spiritual sense, I would say the value of the time of year has more to do with the seasons and the earth itself. Hopefully, I am making sense...so right now, in Australia, you aren't harvesting your fields and culling your livestock, whereas herein the USA, the end of the growing season is upon us. This means if the veil between the living and the dead being "thinnest," - in the spiritual sense, - is likely happening where the growing season is OVER. 

What does that have to do with spells and magic and stuff? Well, it means that if you wanted to celebrate the holiday or plan special rituals, that, while it's always awesome to honor your dead ancestors (which is part of the basis of Samhain,) that it might, depending on your global location not really be the time when the "veil is the thinnest" between the living and the dead. 

Also, if you're not really a spiritual person, why are you celebrating a spiritual holiday? Some people just like Halloween because they want to dress up as a pirate and drink a lot. If you don't belong to a religion that celebrates Halloween or Samhain, there really isn't anything wrong with that. In the USA, I celebrate the signing of the declaration of Independence with beer and fireworks and barbecues. I don't expect people in the Ukraine to celebrate that holiday, as they aren't from the USA. So, if your religion doesn't have All Souls Day/Day of the Dead or Samhain in it, don't worry about celebrating it as a religious holiday.

Can you do anything magical? Well, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, now is the time to do some ancestor work. :) 

Hopefully that cleared some stuff up and didn't tick off too many people. ;)

~Cat

 

That Explains a Few Things....

So, a lot of friends who are self-employed and run small businesses have been complaining of crappy returns, while other (and sometimes the same) friends are complaining of having old secrets and old promises starting to haunt them. Well, both Saturn and Jupiter are in shadow and waiting to retrograde, and shadow periods are weirdly often more intense for many people than full on retrogrades do. At least during a retrograde you are revisiting old goals, old relationships, or past (whatever the retrograde planet influences - love, communication,business, etc,) and having a chance to reintegrate them (succcessfully) into your life, revisit them, or even see if it's time to totally let go. Shadow periods tend to just be "everything is screwy.

So if people are paying slow, if business is slow, if you feel unsuccessful, if you feel slow at learning, if old promises you made (no longer valid,) keep coming up, if deep personal wounds have been ripped open, if you feel held down by things which are no longer important to you...well, the shadow periods will be over in a few weeks...ish. :/ It's not you, it's the planets.

All Hail Saleos!

Hey there, Occulties,

Since I've definitely signed myself up for more work than I ever should have with 13 more posts (well, 12 after this,) all having to go up on or before December 31 (all while working 14 hour days, because I just am a glutton for punishment,) I had a few days to think on it, and I figured I'd like to have a chat with you all about someone I think is absolutely awesome. No, Rufus Opus, this is not the review of your book which is also forthcoming, but you're awesome, too*

As some of you might know, Saleos (sometimes referred to as Sallos, or Zallos) is one of the 72 spirits in the Ars Goetia. Maybe you've met him. Maybe you haven't. But I have something to say about him, and I will address it directly to him, as it really IS long overdue that I give this fellow a PUBLIC and glowing review:

My dearest Duke Saleos,

You are amazing. You've helped me, you've helped my clients, you love vodka, and wine, and engineer infatuation between men and women like the true master engineer of love that you are. You're everything I ever wanted in a spirit (I also love vodka and helping people fall in love with each other.) It has been an honor and continues to be an honor to work with you.

You have helped me grow as a magician, you have been patient, you have been kind... You even have a great sense of humor, which I was a bit surprised to discover. :)

If anyone (who was seriously interested in conjuring,) asked me who to work with for love, I'd recommend you. I'm pretty sure that goes without saying. You get the job done right - which isn't always "two days later" (and I respect that most highly,) because fast isn't always lasting...and what you create is more often than not, quite lasting. I look forward to further adventures with you.

YOU
ARE
MY
FAVORITE
GOE
TO
WORK
WITH!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Duke Saleos!

I cannot praise you enough, and will continue to do so. May we work together for many years to come.

Yours truly,

~Cat

*RO would be even more awesome if he published a book which was bound in the hide of unicorn nipples, inked in the blood of his enemies, and smoked with demon farts, but he still hasn't published a book like that, so he's only 99.9% awesome, and I told him this very thing yesterday. :P

****Added 10/10/15 - I am glad to talk about SALEOS (I didn't misspell his name) with people practiced with evocation if you would like to know my experiences. I welcome discussion with those who have successfully practiced evocation. :) If you're a dabbler, if you refer to him as Sallos (when he's listed as Saleos, Zaleos, and Caleos in the varying sources that I am familiar with - not to mention, I've spoken to Saleos himself,) or if you tell me he is your only hope and you really really really want your ex back/someone to love you, but you've never cast a spell, then I do not teach evocation, and I am not interested in the discussion. Ask me a stupid question, and you will get a contemptuous answer. I teach ROOTWORK not spirit conjure. Sorry to be such an asshole, but this post has been an ASSHOLE MAGNET and after almost a year of fucktardedly stupid questions, the answer is, YES, I LOVE SALEOS AND HE IS AMAZING, but NO, I do not think he's your only hope if you never cast a spell before, and frankly, successful evocation takes a long time to learn. I don't teach it, either. ****

Text is copyright me - no copying, copy and pasting, etc., images in this article from the free domain. If you dispute they are from the free domain and they are yours, please contact me and I will take them down.

Questions You've Asked Me: End of 2014 Edition

Hey occulties!

You knew this was coming. Perhaps you knew because I'm uncreative, and I tend to enjoy these types of posts, or perhaps you know it was coming because you reading right now personally asked me so many questions last week in an email (that I've not replied to,) that you KNEW I'd have to post all about it. ;)

Either way, let's get crackin'! The first one IS a repeat, but a useful repeat. ;)

Q: I can't stop thinking my work to death - I've tried everything! How do you stop yourself?

A: I don't always stop myself. ;) I'm big enough to admit it - I can totally think something down to nothing. Sometimes it's because I'm SO EXCITED to get something I want, and other times it's about money...which, it's like I've told some of you, if I have a big bill and I'm just SURE I won't be able to cover it, I get increasingly aggravated, and then my money spell won't manifest until after the bill is due...even though I KNOW I'm the one making that so, I can't seem to move myself around it. :P

HOWEVER, I do have a few tricks I use for avoiding lust for results/thinking the work to death...

1. I avoid my own triggers. For example if it's a personal relationship I'm doing spellwork on (not necessarily romantic in nature, but any personal relationship,) I will often stop listening to music, because I tend to think of my personal relationships when I listen to music. Some people find watching TV to be a trigger. Others feel long car rides are difficult (I suggest a book on tape - er or I should say on your device/cd player, lol, whatever is read aloud, - when driving as it will engage your mind.) Whatever your trigger/s is/are, look for a solution to avoid those triggers.

2. I keep my mind engaged in "thinking" tasks, and avoid "mindless" tasks as much as possible. For example, working for a client involves using my whole brain to focus on their problem. Sweeping my floor is a mindless task - I use hardly any brain...and if I were to engage in sweeping the house for a half hour, I could totally see my mind wandering to whatever I'm spellworking on (if I feel attracted to analyzing it.) Of course we can't totally avoid "mindless tasks" (as a pet owner, there would be pet-hair tumbleweeds in my house if I did not sweep at least daily,) but we CAN try to stay on top of those we need to do (like simple house cleaning) to avoid these tasks building into requiring a few hours at a time to accomplish them. ;)

3. I throw myself wholeheartedly at someone else's problems. You know who has problems? Everyone you know. Find someone who needs your help, and go out of your way to be helpful (without being creepy.) ;) If a friend is getting divorced or maybe another friend is uncertain about their job, I go out of my way to listen to their problems and try to help them solve said issue (in a non-magical fashion.)

4. I think it to death before I work on it. If I really believe if I don't get a chance to over-analyze the situation, that I'll keep coming back to it in my own mind, I'll spend the next 48-72 hours doing nothing but thinking about it. By the time I start my spellwork, I've so thoroughly exhausted the topic to myself in my own mind, I'm really not so eager to over think it.

5. I tell myself to "knock it off" when I find myself engaging in lust for results/thinking the work to death (and surprisingly "knock it off, Cat," actually works.

6. If I'm really married to the idea that I must, must, must, must think the problem/spell/situation to death, I will give myself 15 minutes every other night to think as much as I want about it.

7. I practice what I call "Stillness," which is basically quieting the mind. First I find a focal point, usually outside (looking out a window,) and then I tell myself nothing from the future can effect me at that moment, nothing from the past can effect me, and nothing presently will interrupt or disturb me, clearing my mind as I say these things. It brings a complete sense of peace. The longer I can stay in this state, the less wound up I am about anything whatsoever.

Q: I am worried about fire safety - can I use battery-operated lights in my spellcasting?

A: This was recently on a forum I was reading, and I don't agree that this is an effective method. If you want to use fake candles, they are certainly nice for mood-lighting, but they are not representative of fire, nor do they function in the same manner a candle does -at least how I work.

Before anyone groans and said "So-and-so says it's OK!" I assure you that I tried this out this summer with an LED fake candle. It did not show any impact. The argument I hear for this is that it's "the light" which is the gift, but in the traditions I work in, that's not entirely accurate. If you want to leave a little blinky light out as an offering and it works for you, go ahead and try.

HOWEVER, your best bet for fire safety (and not pissing off entities/ancestors/beings/the Universe who want fire, and not a low level LED glow,) is to stop worrying so much about FORM (that is, appearance) and worry more about function. Your best friend is sand. Go purchase several pounds of sand in burn your candles in a sheetcake tin or pie plate full of sand. Have a seven day, glass-encased candle? Put 2 inches of sand in a metal bucket, then place the name paper and then the candle into the bucket. Fill with sand until it reaches about the brim of the bucket. I've had these candles explode and continue to burn safely even after explosion, with no noticable heat coming off of them.

If you're more worried about something being pretty rather than it working well, I'm not the right person to learn from. ;) Also, those crappy LED fake candles are plastic and spending another 4 million years not decomposing whereas the candles you use are not going to create their own landfill. If you're earth friendly at all, you want to avoid using LED candles as an "offering" or in place of a candle.

Q: Why are so many practitioners/blog-writers/writers/occultists such a bag of dicks when I ask them questions? (Implied: These people should be so grateful for anyone's attention as to be ready to answer 5 hours worth of questions, not limited to going over the most elementary facets of spellcasting, merely for being asked to.)

A: Believe it or not, 99% (MAYBE 98%) of all people on this planet, including magic dabblers, are incredibly ignorant when it comes to the occult to such a level that it would be like me asking you over and over and over again why food rots when left out of a refrigerator and/or without being sealed, and then being dumbfounded by mold and maggots and bugs and etc, as if decay, and flora and fauna that loves old food never existed. Or...perhaps even like me being horrified that ice can melt when put into a drink...just literally shrieking as it disappears in my drink, and asking you HOW CAN THIS BE?!

And see, we, the authors and experts of the occult, know this is so. This means if you ask me a "simple question," then...well, it's not. Imagine, right now, that a two-year old asks you, "Can you explain to me the meaning of romantic love, and why it isn't always returned?" And then explain that to a child of those years in terms that they clearly understand - be sure to be deep, cover all psychological, spiritual, emotional, behavioral, and biological reasons in most currently held cultures. Or, perhaps something you're more familiar with - ever been to the doctor or the dentist, and they start speaking doctor or dentist to each other, and you're not really sure what they are saying? That's how occultists speak to each other.

And the truth is, I have cohorts even I don't bother debating with when I have an opposing view. I have peers (who I love and adore who are amazing and intelligent) who I avoid debate with not out of ANY LACK OF EXPERIENCE, but because they will come back with references, ten Google links, a college thesis paper they wrote, words from a long-dead guru, a note from their doctor, fifteen passages in ancient Hebrew, twelve in Coptic, and 2 books that are so rare, only three copies exist, and they are one of the people who helped translate that text in a museum. They do that to newbs, too...if they were patient enough to reply. ;) I'm happy with experience being the teacher, lol, so after I get a reading list (should I want to refute their opinion, I must first read this whole reading list,) I generally think "Hmm, I work 14 hours a day. This one book looks interesting but it will take me four months to read it, so I'll just go back to debating them in four months when I have." ;)

HOWEVER, the thing is, none of you get that it's not a quick answer. For it to be a quick answer, I should not have to tell you how to anoint a candle. I shouldn't have to tell you what colors correspond to Thursday or which planet rules Wednesday. I shouldn't have to tell you how to work around lunar correspondences, I shouldn't have to tell you why Return To Me is different than Reconciliation...this is all super basic shit. You should know what day, you should know what time is best. You shouldn't have to ask dumb questions like that unless you're such a neophyte that you don't know.

So, you're a neophyte...nothing wrong with that at all! We all were at one point. The difference is, the people you're talking to right now? The "modern experts?" We all were neophytes in a time where we had to put our own experience and study (of these inanimate objects called books, more often than not,) in, our own work - we didn't have anyone at your disposal to help us, really. We earned where we are. There were teachers, but they had to be sought out, and then, if we were lucky, if we'd earned it, they'd teach us. By the time we could ask others, we were far enough along that no one would even expect us to ask "What day do I start this? Like a Saturday or some shit?"

Now, go back to "Why are you all such a bag of dicks about questions?" Well, I don't think any of us would be that at all if you paid us for our time like we used to pay (and still pay) for our research materials, or if you tried to learn for yourself instead of trying to use us as free encyclopedias. Put in your work, pay others for theirs. You'll find people are a lot nicer. ;) The benefit you have IS that you can get stuff I NEVER could have gotten my hands on in my neophyte days. Don't abuse the help of others, and WE WILL HELP, and GLADLY SO. But come in with a list of 200 questions, expecting all the answers for free (or that we will write spells out for free,) and you might make someone act like a bag of dicks. :/

Aaron Leitch (who is actually a super nice guy) says it pretty well right here. ;)

Q: I'm confused - why is real spellcasting nothing like what I've seen in the movies/on television?

A: You're probably under the age of 15 (in which case, you might need parental permission to read my blog,) or suffering from impaired intelligence if you actually think most things on television or the movies are true-to-life. Lawyers laugh at lawyer shows (as a lawyer's kid, I also laugh at how inaccurate these are,) cops laugh at cop shows (wholly inaccurate again,) doctors laugh at doctor shows (stupidly inaccurate,) and occultists laugh at shows with magicians/witches/spells in them... It's not that I don't find entertainment with magic as part of the plot ENTERTAINING sometimes, but I know that it's entertainment. If you're familiar with Indiana Jones movies, that's about as accurate of a portrayal of archaeology (which it's hugely inaccurate of a portrayal of archaeology,) as movies and dramas and comedies and tv shows are accurate to the occult.

Some shows are a bit closer than others, but they are all part of a fantasy concocted for your entertainment...just like in most romance movies, the characters would be creepy and obsessed assclowns - not objects of desire; or "poor" people live in these luxury houses and apartments that most of us couldn't afford, etc., etc., etc. If you think Hollywood depicts real life very often, you're very young, and/or very naive, and/or not too bright. Even the "based on a true" story stuff is usually so far off from the true story that it's arguable that it's based on anything true. :/

Q: You give pretty good love advice - what's the best you got?

A: If you really ever loved that person and they loved you, they are almost guaranteed to come back at some point, regardless of spellwork. I've had people I never cast a spell on come back to me 5-10 years later. Obviously, death and disaster might prevent that, but the good ones come and go a few times, in my experience. I wish someone told me this when I was a younger woman, as it would have saved me staying up late torturing a few people til they came back (with spells! mwhahahahaha,) but I see now that the ones I just let go even came back. There is a beautiful passage in Corinthians, and it's very true: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." Also, the Beatles said it well with "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." Basically, even though it seems like things are irrepairably lost to you, wait awhile. It might be a very long while. You might forget how much you cared. It often comes to you at some point anyhow, if you earned it, and if you loved it enough (again, barring death or disaster.) So...it's okay to let someone go. Maybe the time is wrong for you to be together right now. Don't fear you won't see them again. You often will, and they will love you and miss you when you do.

People have come back to me and said surprisingly loving and beautiful things to me when I'd written them out of my life. They've proven to me that love is a pretty unshakable bond.

Or maybe that's just a load of sugary horseshit for everyone but me. Can't say. If that sounds like a load of platitudes, then the second best advice is "For fuck's sake, stop calling your ex, stop texting them, and fucking calm down. Desperation is the world's worst cologne and your actions and behavior stink of it. Until you stop reeking of desperation, don't expect anyone to come back - just expect everyone to be repelled." :)

Alrighty, kiddos - that's it for this edition of QUESTIONS YOU'VE ASKED ME. New article shortly (seeing as I have 16 days to finish 13 more articles, I definitely can't wait too long.) ;)

~Cat

Solomonic Pentacles for Sale - Rufus Opus' Head for Red

*****THIS POST HAS MOVED DUE TO AN UNAUTHORIZED LINKING - Original date 12/15/13 - if you're using my links, please be sure you have my permission. If you don't have my permission to use my links, I will continue to change them until you get permission or get that you won't be getting permission. ;) Thanks! ****

Hey Occulties,

Over the years, many of you have asked me where I get my super awesome "made at the right time, to exact specification" pentacles from the Greater Key of Solomon. While I've had more than one source, I have REALLY REALLY enjoyed working with RO's pentacles. He sent me a Jupiter pentacle, and 2 Venus pentacles recently. The day I received the Jupiter pentacle, I made 6x the sales I have been making recently. The specific Venus pentacles I purchased from him work sooo well, I'm surprised he's listing them for general purchase! I highly recommend these products to everyone (example pictured.)

If you're interested in purchasing your own, please click here!

~Cat

"Faking It until you Make It" vs Being a Moron

Hi Occulties,

As some of you might know, in many cases, I'm all for "faking it until you make it," to some degree. All of us our beginners at some point, and many of us will be book-taught or classroom-taught on some subject with our first moment of real-life application of said knowledge happening after the beginning of our cerebral-learning period. For example, if I wanted to repair a step on my stairs, I might first read a chapter in a book or an online how-to before I attempt to fix that stair. OR, I might just pull up the cracked/broken step, measure a board, cut it, and nail it where the broken step was WITHOUT consulting a book. I think many of us can agree there are things in life which might be done better WITH INSTRUCTION that can also often be competently done (albeit perhaps not the best done,) without.

So, using the example of the above "bad stair," what if I decided, with little to no woodworking experience, to rip down the whole stairway and replace it with a brand new stairway, made by myself, entirely by making it up in my head and applying my own knowledge of what this looks like by watching Mr NinjaCat's having made stairs and nothing else. (See, I've even seen someone do it before.) I have to be honest here...if I did that, I sure as hell hope none of you would use my stairway...or you'd probably be dead of a broken neck in my basement (the only stairs I can think of in my house that I could pull off or replace without gutting the house.) Sure, I understand to make 2 same size boards run diagonal at the same angle (being the same length,) and cut the same in a stair pattern. I understand where the boards go. I have seen this. However, with no help, I'm sure it would still be deadly. Or at least it would be ill-advised someone use my "Hahaha, I faked being able to be a carpenter long enough to nail this shit together and to my house" stairs.

OK, I know, I know, stairs are not the occult. They are not spellcasting. You want to know what in the sam-hell my stair talk has to do with spells. ;) Well, over the years, I've watched people do the equivalent of trying to do more than build a staircase without ever having done woodwork or carpentry, but even go so far as to comparatively attempt to build a HOUSE without having ever so much as built a spice rack, much less having the knowledge to make a broken lamp fixed in regards to spellwork. Guess what? Your honey jar? That's about as complicated as fixing a single stair, just replacing a board. That's good beginner work. HOWEVER, that super "easy" looking spell you found? To make it work, you better have the skill, or you might hurt yourself and others. :P Yeah, no, you can't just throw in that God or Goddess or spirit from x pantheon that you have a passing fancy for in with this being that you're calling in this spell. No, don't mix Erzulie and Oshun. That's naive and ridiculous. Uh, yeah, no, you've just told me I'm related to Woden and Jesus Christ - don't even cast spells, much less write books (true story, right now the craziest person with the least amount of magical ability possible, who used to tell me the craziest shit about magic that has nothing to do with real magic is right now a published author, and before you say "wasn't that a long time ago?" I assure you it was 4-5 at most that she was saying such nonsense - so make your book purchases carefully, too.) ;)

But humorously ignorant people aside, and obviously spiritually-and-magically-inept newbies trying to overdo it aside, my point here is that it's BETTER for you as a spellcaster to learn how to do the complicated-stuff right, rather than assume you have some natural gift for this type of work and it will all just come to you - you know you're an expert, after all, because you did a single candle spell once. :P I have a natural gift for this type of work and I've been studying the occult for 25 years, which is basically saying since I started going through puberty. I also had an interest in it as a wee one and still, even with my natural gift, I had to put my hours in studying and practicing. I studied, practiced, studied more, practiced more, etc daily for years (and I continue to practice and/or study on a daily basis,) to be where I am now. There is no class that will make you instantly-gifted. There is no such thing as graduating a class and becoming an able spellcaster or worker who could consider him or herself even "intermediate" level at working. There are a few OK classes out there - don't get me wrong - but when I graduated first-year spanish back in the seventh grade, there is no way I'd have been able to speak fluently to people down in Uruguay with my limited Spanish-language skills, and I took that class 5 days a week. How many times do you take your class a week? Is it at least 5 hours of class a week with homework that takes a few hours? Because if it's not, you're not even learning enough to be a first year "magic student" if such things existed. Let that absorb for a bit. :)

Or...let's think on how long it took you to learn arithmetic. Were you capable of doing division on fractions (with no calculator, of course,) by age eight? If not, why? I mean, you'd been learning basic math since at least first grade. Isn't that at least a whole year to learn elementary knowledge? And you were studying for hours a day then, which is more than your magic class you're taking now - you must have had some pretty "advanced" math skills if you had that many hours of learning and your magic class is going to make you advanced in as many hours.

Could you spell several words over ten letters long by age eight? Did you know what to defenestrate is? (It's to throw someone out a window.) If you just learned that now, why? I mean, you've been speaking English all of your fucking life, right (er, let's just pretend you have, heh)? Oh, because they didn't teach you in school? But there are all sorts of places to learn words, so why didn't you know that one? I mean, here you are, an adult, and you don't know all the words in the English language? Why? If you had so many hours to learn them, and whole parts of school were dedicated to broadening your vocabulary, why are you unfamiliar with words like verisimilitude and why do you not know "redundant"* doesn't mean really mean repetitive but superfluous? Because if your magic class can make you an expert or advanced or even an intermediate magician, then years of vocabulary should make you like the English language dictionary, and you should be familiar with what all common words (even commonly misused ones) mean - because if one class makes you an expert, then, why aren't you? ;)

The point I'm trying to make IS NOT that everyone here reading is a meat head. ;) It's actually that regardless of who you are, to become an expert magician, you will PROBABLY need about 10 years of work at least. AT LEAST. No single class is going to change that unless the class is so frequent that it's like taking a college level course, and even then, you'd only be "This Professor's Magic 101" level because magic is such a gigantic topic that you won't be "Ceremonialist 101" or "Hoodoo 101" in almost every case of every class I've seen out there. Your "100-levels" (in the USA 100-200 level courses are your university basic levels for Freshman/1st year and sophomore/2nd year, where you need to take several each year to get to your upper-level learning,) would need to be you taking a few of these classes every day, assuming you had the basics (a grade school k-12 education,) every day for at least the previous 6-7 years before arriving at magic school. Oh, and lets assume you have live time in the altar room with the professor at least weekly, too.

Oh, you didn't have any of that? Oh, it was a thing where someone sent you a mail every week? OK. That's fine. It's a good starting point. But just because you graduated someone's class, that doesn't mean you're even near my level of knowledge or the level of knowledge of several of my peers. You're still a beginner.

Can we agree on that? I know some online teachers won't, but the rest of us? Can we agree that if you study something a lot, you'd at least need a few years studying it and practicing it before anyone even thought you were out of the beginner stage?

I say this because recently I've been getting a lot of this in my inbox: "Hi Ms NinjaCat, I've been practicing spells forever, am an expert and gifted, and I want a giant fix-everything spell. I'm not afraid of calling spirits. I worked with Hecate a few times. Oh, and I like Isis." OK, so you read a few books once? ;) You're not an expert. Readers, can you identify how easy it is to see this person is not an expert?

If you were an expert, you'd know there is no such thing as a giant fix-everything spell. While I can assume you might have worked with some God-heads, I also don't believe you can just splat in some Grecian or Egyptian deities willy-nilly and call that "calling a spirit." If you've ever called an inhuman spirit, and not had a pants-shitting (or nearly-pants-shitting) experience, then you're in for a surprise when you really do call one. If you can control it. If you understand the dangers of that (cuz if you don't, don't call me crying at 3am that something disembodied keeps biting you.) And you've "worked with" Hecate and Isis. Define this to me. Did you do a regular devotional to either? Daily? Weekly? Did you have an altar set up to leave offerings to either? Did you regularly pray to either? What was your relationship with these beings?

If your answer was "None really. I called them using this Llewellyn book to watch over my love mojo on this one case, and in the other to make sure I got this specific job, but I followed the instructions, and my spell worked and stuff."

Yeah...

So, if I go back to the beginning of my article with me trying to build stairs. The person who "read a book" and "called Hecate and Isis" comparatively just ripped the stairwell off, cut some boards kind of right, nailed other boards to them, and now I have a deadly, crooked, creaking, about to fall off and fall-apart staircase. But you're an expert staircase maker, because you read a book once, right? Right. That's what many of you self-professed "experts" (and no, not you real experts, haha,) in my inbox are doing magically. You're inept, you're obviously not an expert, and the worst thing you're doing is faking to yourself that you can do this. No, some light candle spells and a honey jar is not expert work. Throwing in cherries because it "felt right" when cherry bark, and cherries are not at all correspondent to your working is not you being inspired by spirit. It's probably you thinking you're so magical that you fart fairy dust. I'm a pretty magical person - I don't fart fairy dust (unless I eat 2lbs of glitter, and then it looks like fairy dust,) so I'm pretty sure you don't either. I'm psychic, I've studied psychicism, and I can tell made up crap from real experiences...if you haven't ever experienced psychicism or studied it, you do a bad job trying to pretend you have. Like if 5 disembodied voices/beings follow you around 24/7 and you see them 24/7, you might want to consult a psychiatrist, not a psychic.

"Fake it til you make it" is meant for people who are on the precipice of being what they want to be. It doesn't work it for someone who has a high school education and is doing nothing more than dressing as a brain surgeon and telling themselves they are one, and operating on people. Nope, "Fake it til you make it," might apply to the resident learning brain surgery - the one who did years and years of school and study to get there, not to the person who saw a Hollywood movie where people did brain surgery. So "Fake it til you make it" does not make a noob who has done a few honey jars and single candle spells into an expert. Reading a book once won't make you an expert. Taking a class once won't make you an expert. You can't fake that much - you're too ignorant. We all would be too ignorant with so little learning and practice under our belts.

I'm not trying to be discouraging - I want people to learn to cast their own spells, I want them to learn about the occult; - but for goodness' sake, if you're not an expert, don't pretend to be one. It actually makes you less of a moron to admit you're just starting out, or that your skills are novice. It helps you for you to admit to yourself that you still have lots to learn, because then you won't have as many problems that the grossly hubris-tic students of the occult often have (see above, pants-shitting spirit-raising,) when they didn't expect said problems. :P People would rather teach a person who wants to learn, not the pretend know it all (see above, I'm related to Jesus and Woden?? no, that's stupid.) I would rather you start out with "I know nothing. I did a few candle spells once, so I have that much experience under my belt, but when it comes to setting up an altar to a deity, I'm kind of clueless," than pretend to be an expert. It's very visible when you're not. :P

There is no shame in being a beginner. None. We all had to be beginners once. We all had the NOOBIEST NOOB MOMENTS. Right now, any real spellcaster or magician who's the real-deal has more than one "NOOBIEST OF THE NOOB" stories - I know this, because I've exchanged a few, and some of them are downright scary and hilarious at the same time. Now, I understand - if you were 18 and just starting out on your higher education, you'd feel no shame saying "I'm going to college/university to learn meteorology," but if you didn't get that interest until you were 30, would you tell people you were a meteorologist because you're an adult and don't want to be thought of as a novice? I mean, you have no school in it, but you like to watch the weather. Yeah, so you're not a meteorologist...not even close. ;) That's what you're doing when you pretend to be an expert, or even intermediate-, spellcaster and you're not. It shows. You're not faking it til you make it. You're being an assclown. No expert ever got to be an expert by not ever being a beginner. There is no shame in being a beginner. There is no shame in being annoyed that getting past the beginner stage is a longer time-investment and greater effort than you'd hoped. ;) There is no shame in falling on your face because you attempted something a bit more advanced than you were ready for - the shame comes when you don't admit you made the mistake or when you pretend you're some sort of expert that you're not - especially if you then mis-teach others with your NON-expert advice.

So, I guess my long, rambling diatribe is summed up best with be happy to learn, know yourself, and try to avoid putting on airs. If you get to the beginner stage, you'll wow the noobs. If you get to the intermediate stage, you'll wow the beginners. If you get to the advanced stage, you'll wow the intermediates, and if you get to the expert stage, you'll be wowing everyone. It's an earned thing. It takes work to get there. But even the fact that you're investing the time and effort to try to start at the beginning to learn this stuff? That's something to be proud of. If being an expert in anything was so easy to learn, it wouldn't be a valuable thing to be an expert, so be prepared for a long road of study and practice...and start "Faking it til you make it," when you're really close to being able to do whatever, you've put your learning in, you've applied your knowledge, but this is the first time you've PRACTICED something is when to "fake it." However, if you have to look everything up in books, can't tell me 10 uses for just the color of gold in spellcraft off of the top of your head in under 20 seconds, or what Monday is useful for if using days of the week, etc - you're not outside of the beginner, or perhaps even noob, stage. It's just what it is. Sorry if that's disappointing, but anything worth having (including having the "expert" title in a field of knowledge) is something earned through hard work.

Sorry for rambling on and on,

~Cat

*While some people do use this as being repetitive, suchas "Cat said spell so often, the term became redundant" the actual meaning:

redundant [rɪˈdʌndənt]
adj
1. surplus to requirements; unnecessary or superfluous
2. verbose or tautological
3. (Business / Industrial Relations & HR Terms) deprived of one's job because it is no longer necessary for efficient operation he has been made redundant
4. (Engineering / General Engineering) (Electronics) (of components, information, etc.) duplicated or added as a precaution against failure, error, etc.
[from Latin redundans overflowing, from redundāre to run back, stream over; see redound]
redundantly adv

Everything is copyright OriginalNinjaCat 2013. All rights reserved. Copyright enforced to the strongest possible legal level possible. Be good and don't steal my writing. I get cranky and conjure up the scariest lawyer possible if you do.

Scrying for Beginners

Hello my lovelies,

So first off...my search into the free domain did not illicit the image I want. Perhaps this is thanks to Mercury and its less-than-masterful position in the sky, or maybe I'm just not as good as chasing down images as I used to be. ;)

That being said, after a bit of editing, here is a way to use a "magic mirror" to see the future. I know, you're saying "hahahaha, a magic mirror? Cat, what is this, a retelling of SNOW WHITE?" and then you are no doubt rolling on the floor laughing your behind off.

Well, you know what? I laugh right back at you. Magic mirrors (not even in the discussion of reflective or mirror spellcraft, which is an entirely different subject,) are sometimes called a "seeing glass," or a scrying glass, and many other names. I usually refer to them as a scrying mirror or scrying tool. These are a human recreation of their likely predecessor of looking into a dark pool of water. Nostradamus (sp?) even used one of these (or so history books tell me,) while writing his prophecies.

Its quite easy to make...you will need:

A piece of glass 8 inches by 8 inches square,*
Glossy black spray paint,
Newspaper or scrap paper,
A frame (or duct tape) to contain the glass in.

*those who would like to use an alternate size may do so, as long as the alternative size is greater than or equal to 8x8 inches - also, since I'm sure it will be asked, yes, if your frame contains a piece of glass (real glass) that is at least 8 inches long or high, and greater to or equal than 8 inches wide, you may use THAT piece of glass.

To make: Place your piece of glass on a newspaper or on scrap paper, and spray the side of glass facing up to you with black spray paint. Allow to dry. Spray the painted side again with a second coat to ensure it has been covered. Allow to dry. You may say a small blessing over the glass if you so choose, and then place into the frame with the painted side facing in, and the un-painted side facing towards you.

That's it.

Yep. That's it. You should have an incredibly shiny pitch black surface. So you've made it...but does that mean you can use it?

Now its my turn to laugh - scrying is difficult. Its sort of like if I sent a saxaphone to your house, and you'd never seen one before, and you expect you can instantly play said instrument with great skill - which we both know isn't likely, just like instant ability to scry (see things psychicly) using your scrying tool instantly is unlikely. ;) So, we're going to have to practice (ugh!) practice (nooo) practice! (why, God, why?)

But your old friend Cat can make it easier for you... :D See, you knew I had something better for you than painting a piece of glass black! :) Of course there is more...

You will want to make an incense of five equal parts copal, frankincense, aloeswood, star anise, and mugwort. You may wish to crush this, so its finer (the resin chunks of frankincense and copal should be in approximately equal measure to the other ingredients, plus burning, say, a whole star anise pod may cause the pod to shoot the seed at you and burn you - not good for concentration.) ;) When you have mixed the ingredients (2-3 tablespoons of each will make you enough incense to last a long time,) store in a plastic bag in a cool dry area. When you would like to use this incense, place a pinch of this onto a charcoal-round in a charcoal burning censer.

Oho, wait, you're thinking you're old friend Cat now gave you a piece of glass painted black and some stinky incense! What? WHAT? WHAT? That's no fun.

I'm not yet even close to do done. ;) Let's get to the basics of using your scrying tool, shall we?

I first recommend this method as it is how I learned:

1. You may wish to light your charcoal round now. Try to clear your mind completely of thought. If you are experienced at meditation, you will know the state of mind I mean - mentally lucid, yet with a relaxed body, mind open. If you are not experienced at meditation, I recommend allowing yourself to sit comfortably, and try to clear your mind of thought - when a thought comes in, allow it to drift away from you, until you feel the chatter in your head is silent. If you have a specific question, you may now put this question in mind, but keep it clear, without "side chatter." For example, if a woman wanted to know when she will be married or details of her marriage, she may simply have the word "marriage" in mind, or "When will I be married?" etc.

2. Place your incense on the censer, and open your "third eye" region - if you feel you cannot do this, or you do not understand the concept, simply open your eyes at this time, trying to keep a clear mind OR keep your mind clear save for the specific subject you are speaking knowledge on.

A simple chant is often helpful to use as a "trigger" to open the third eye. This can be a prayer, a simple line of your choosing, a trigger word, or whatever you please. For the less creative of my Rantlings, I offer the following to say, "I open my third eye, I look in the glass, I see what will be, what is, and what's past."

3. Sit quietly and stare into the glass. It is important to try to put the eye so it is not straining, not pushing, just calmly looking at the glass as though it is a reflective surface on the water, and you can barely see the bottom. Do not be disappointed if the first time you look in the glass, you do not see anything. ;) This is natural. Sit for no longer than five minutes if you see nothing, then cover your scrying tool or place it in a drawer (etc), and stop practice for the day.

4. When not in use, you should be sure your scrying tool is not being looked into by others or used by others.

Repeat. Practice. Repeat.

When will you see images? When will you get information? Now you're not going to like me. ;) Most people take about 3 weeks to a month of daily practice before anything appears in the mirror.

HOWEVER, scrying is the most amazing form of divination (IMHO.) Allow me to relate my personal experience with my first time of scrying. First I was not intentionally putting myself into a meditative state, but rather, sort of staring off fixated on a reflective black surface. I remember being very bored and just blank minded. I was 15 or so at the time, maybe a year or so younger, and in school (if you're giggling, it was a quiet reading time and I'd read the damn book in like 3rd or 4th grade that the class was reading in high school, so keep giggling, because it was old news to me, and difficult for the average student years later, HA.) I noticed as I kept my gaze fixed that I was starting to see what look like a mist or a fog rolling into the perimeter of the black surface, slowly filling it up. I did not feel scared or frightened. I was not sure it was not a trick of the light or of the eye. I just remember being bored and this was entertaining since to me public schooling was all review and old news. ;) So I kept staring. The fog/mist/smoke was definitely moving, but it started to seem like it had movement under it, and I could begin to make pictures out under it. I had a casual thought slip through at the time, and being a teenage girl, I had a teenage girl thought. I remember it clearly because it was "I wonder if any boys like me?" (Now you can definitely laugh!) and the reason its clear is that I started to sort of see a face under the fog, and it was of the kid that bullied me every day in art class! ;) I blinked, sort of surprised that this had happened, and as quick as it had happened, (quicker, even) the surface was just reflective and black with nothing there. About 1-2 years later, the kid who had taunted and bullied me in school (he had later moved to another district,) was in the cafeteria of my high school at the end of the day. He stopped me to say hello, and seemed genuinely excited to see me. He was chatting me up for a few minutes, and while I was sort of cautious of his niceness to me, I realized he was really talking with me because he wanted to. I was curious as to why. "But Jeremy," I said, "I just have to ask, why are you being so nice to me? You were so mean to me when we were in that class - you made fun of me so bad in art class! I'd be so upset. I never gave you any reason to poke fun at me or anything! I guess I thought you hated me."

He blushed and said, "Well, that's because I really thought you were cute, and I thought you would think I was being funny. I guess I took it too far." I must have looked really dumbfounded. Because he said, "You're still really cute, and I wish I'd just told you I felt that way. I guess you would have realized how much I liked you then instead of you thinking I was a jerk." Then, in like that chronically embarassedness that is being in high school, I knew I was blushing beet red, he was pretty red, and he did like a "Well, bye!" and ran off. ;)

I know, let's vomit at that cheesy sort of "oh, its Cat in high school, so gawky" moment. ;)

BUT, see, despite the fact I was certainly stupified by the revelation at the time it came to me through scrying, and the later confirmation of this via the man himself, I was definitely hooked on seeing this weird fog that could answer questions. ;) I would start using a window at night, and staring at it, waiting for the "fog" to come in...and with a little practice, I did start to be able to clear my mind, and let it happen. It wasn't easy to perfect upon (you get excited sometimes, and it just disappears like turning off a freaking TV,) it can be cryptic (kid picking on me in art class likes me? Ew! says high school self, NO WAY!) but its a great tool for divination.

Plus the other occulties will be SO JEALOUS when you perfect your technique and can look in your scrying tool and see things true. ;)

Well, I'm sure I have typos or forgot someting, but it IS the post-a-thon of September, and the post is UP!

So, tell me the corrections I need to make (if any,) and also ask your questions (if any) and thankies for reading. :)

~Cat

All text and pictures copyright OriginalNinjaCat.com, unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved, may not be copied, copied and pasted, or in any way duplicated without express written permission of the author.

What happens if you steal, copy, plagiarize or in some way infringe on my copyright? Click here to find out!