Spiritual junk Archives

The Devil In Me (Giggity)

A while ago now I invited my Facebook friends to “ask me anything.” Sometimes I’ve just got the devil in me and want a bit of chaos to keep me going.

This is now how I’ll always see Old Nick (j/k)

I’ll be honest: I was hoping for unhinged.

I was hoping for the kind of questions that would make me cackle maniacally before spewing out an even more unhinged response.

What I got, however, were a handful of sensible, useful questions. I’m not. complaining, of course. I just wanted to give them some time to marinate in the old brainmeats before I responded. And well, this one’s probably more fermented than anything. It’s been a while, as I said.

The AMA Question That Launched 1000 (ish) Words

The first of the questions (and topic for this post) went as follows:

“What are your fave methods for letting go of real world junk and stress before doing magical work?”

Now I could say something along the lines of “I like to take a ritual bath and do a few minutes of meditation.” But honestly, I’m finding the classics somewhat deficient nowadays. It’s not that they don’t work; it’s just that my view of the overall picture has changed. Nowadays I find myself increasingly aware of the battle of consensus raging in our midst. We are, as the saying goes, in the time of monsters between the old world and new, each faction fighting for its preferred shape.

In my opinion, that “real world junk and stress” is a lot weightier than most might think.

Stories As Spirit-People

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve no doubt seen me talk about Story and narrative. After all, it’s something I do a lot. You see, I sincerely believe that some of the stories in the ThisWorld would be better understood as a kind of spirit-person, imbued with their own agency and power of shaping. And as strange that might sound, I’m not alone in that belief, either.

Take, for example, Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray, Love fame. Her book Big Magic opens with an account of how a story came to her at a time when she couldn’t fully devote herself to its work. Some time later though, she happened to meet up with a fellow writer, who then excitedly described her new book. The plot, it turned out, was almost exactly the same as the one that Gilbert had had to pass up.

When I first read Big Magic, I felt excited. (I also, naturally, spent a bunch of time shouting “That’s Awen!” at the pages, like Gilbert could somehow hear me through the paper.) My own experiences with Story and story-spirits (mentioned here) had already led me to much the same place as Gilbert. But it’s always nice to discover you’re not the only weirdo in the village, so yay!

I suspect the only real difference between Gilbert and myself is our framing. Well…that and the whole “making sigils for protagonists” and “actively channeling their words” parts of it as well. Those bits are probably different.

The Troubles With Story-Spirits

What I’m getting at here is that most people don’t typically think of stories as a kind of people. But what if they were? Regardless of your beliefs on this matter, just imagine for a moment that some of the big stories you know are spirit-people. How would that change your approach to, for example, (Christian) religious baggage or nationalist narratives? What tools might you create or seek out to help with discernment?

Ask any group of Witches or other practitioners what they look for when discerning the influence of a demon, ghost, or fairy, and you’ll get answers for days. (Bonus points for a fight or fights breaking out in the comments!)

Discernment is Witchy 101, right?

But ask that same group a similar question about Story, and you’ll most likely be met with confusion. Some of those same folks might even think you crazy, or confidently inform you that “You can’t feel the influence of a story!”

Well, not with that attitude you won’t!

All differences aside, however, I think we can all agree that stories do have the power to shape. That power plays out in propaganda, marketing, national, and religious narratives each and every day. It’s always been there, but our modern tools have supercharged its capabilities. How many of us nowadays inhabit societies where people experience very different realities?

Even worse, those stories continue to maintain their grip even when proven detrimental to their participating groups or individuals.

Imagine a demon with the power to enthrall entire nations to the same degree as a religious or national narrative – how fearsome they’d seem!! For all the breathless reporting about the odd demonically influenced murderer, there are stories out there inspiring people to commit whole-ass genocides. Some stories frankly make most demons look like petty bitches. Our society just takes their influence for granted, so most don’t even see it coming.

Anyway, back to my “fave methods of letting go of real world stress and junk before doing magical work.”

The Story-Spirits And Games At The AMA’s End

My current approach is to do the classics (purification, grounding/centering/shielding, and meditation). But I’m also well aware that stories aren’t so easily banished. How often have you done all of the above only to later catch old narratives creeping into your mind while working? As I blogged about here, our minds not only run on story, the stories within us shape our entire perception of reality.

All of which leads me to roleplaying games (RPGs).

Ordinarily we tend to think of RPGs as separate from magic. However, as the academic Sarah Lynn Bowman makes clear in her book, The Functions of Roleplaying Games, RPGs have clear ritual elements and may even fulfill the need for community ritual for some participants. Once upon a time, I tried to solve this issue by creating an alternate persona for ritual and magic via self-hypnosis (terrible idea, by the way). But what about creating an aspirational character as a way of sidestepping the stories currently shaping me for a glimpse outside their box? Though often overlooked, play can be powerful – a disarmingly liminal Fool-space full of potential. Some of my best channeling sessions with my ancestors have come because I decided to “just pretend” I was doing it, and in so doing, got out of my own way.

So, why not choose to embody the story I want until those other stories (hopefully) lose their grip? After all, I’m “just” playing, right?

From Scarcity to Overabundance

It was a different world for Pagans and Witches when I first started out. My books were whatever was in the local library, and my tools were whatever I’d cobbled together from hikes and thrift stores. Most importantly though for back then, they were all easy to hide, and my ‘altar’ was a small foot stool that could easily slide under my bed.

My first rituals were performed either far off the beaten path in the wilds, or long after my parents

had gone to bed – invocations whispered and candles extinguished outside my bedroom window to minimize that telltale extinguished candle smell. To the me of twenty-three years ago, my current level of openness (not to mention the availability of books and tools we have now), would have been unimaginable.

Nowadays though, we can source the most obscure ritual supplies and have them delivered to our doorsteps, all with the click of a mouse or finger tap on a touchscreen. Need some lignum aloes for that ritual incense you’re making? A white-handled knife for some invocation to a grimoire demon? Need a bag of iron nails? Some ‘mercury head’ dimes? That fancy candle that promises it was made with all organic oils and blessed under (insert relevant moon phase here)?

No problem.

We live in an era in which these things are not all that hard-gotten. And that accessibility can be its own problem.

Products Sold as Life-Fixes

This isn’t an anti-tool post though, not at all. It’s just that with the advent of the ‘basic witch’, I just wanted to start the conversation around necessary as opposed to pretty junk.

When I was younger, a friend once advised me to never own more than I could fit in my backpack, because you’re only as free as your ability to carry the possessions you own. While her point was ostensibly about the physical freedom of being able to move when you want (and I did do that for a few years), over the years I’ve noticed that possessions are weightier in other ways too.

We get attached to possessions, and to make matters worse (?), we live in a society in which we’re constantly told that we need to have the right product in order to fix whatever it is that is wrong/fill that hole/make life perfect.

How many of us have heard the slogan “Better living through (insert random shit here)”?

We are surrounded by this message that products can make our lives better, and while it’s nice to have possessions (and goodness knows, I love mine), I think it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking one’s possessions *are* the point. Having the best car and a house that’s way too big for your family to live in can easily become obsessions to which family time and relaxation are sacrificed. The things become more important than the people – which is an inversion of how things should be. So it only makes sense that this inversion can occur when it comes to products of a more occult or Pagan nature too. After all, we’re already pre-programmed to consume.

Tools vs Junk

Some magical paths come with a lot of tools, and some come with hardly any – this is not an indictment against either end of this spectrum. And when you’re like me and figuratively have your fingers in many magical pies, you’re likely to have all kinds of magical tools knocking about.

For example, my more PGM and grimoire-based work involves scrying bowls, tables of art, knives, various kinds of incense, and goodness knows what else. However, my more Seidr/witchcraft-related stuff involves a staff/distaff, spindle, ‘cauldron’, and a whole lot of wool (skulls are optional). I would also add a ‘spade’ for the necromantic work (but I guarantee, not for the reason you may think, that kind of thing will get you arrested). That’s a *lot* of stuff, and it only ever accumulates as you expand your practice to work with new grimoires etc.

But what is the difference between those things and junk?

Quite simply, they’re either necessary for the form of magic being practiced, part of the etiquette of contacting whichever spirit or group of spirits you’re looking to work with, or necessary for constructing whatever kind of ritual space you work in in your tradition.

Anything that does not fulfill one or more of the above functions is, strictly speaking, junk.

Now, I happen to like the junk, but it’s important to always keep it in mind that while sometimes even occult tchotchke can be useful at times, it’s still no less junk than the piece of paper you fished out of the trash to scrawl a hasty table of art or sigils on (although I’d hope none of you are in such dire straits that you’d need to do such a thing).

Because all too often, the junk can become the point, and therein lies a trap that I think a lot of people fall into (but hardly ever discuss). Unless it’s an item stipulated by a spirit as a condition of conjuration (and potentially pacting) that spirit, or ingredients for something like a hoodoo hand, if ever you find yourself thinking that you can’t do something magically without a certain item or that you need that thing to *fix* your practice, then you may have a problem. This is especially the case if that magical thing you think you can’t do without that thing is actually down to the application of a basic skill.

Knowing Thyself and Mindful Spending

There are some hard lessons to be learned in the examination of our motivations for buying junk, and the paths it may lead us down. In some cases, having that need to find a ‘fix’ in the form of a product may be indication that the practitioner has become impatient with having to take the long road, and do the hard work it takes to become ‘advanced’. In other cases, it can be an indication that the practitioner needs to ‘go deeper’ and try to face whatever it is inside themselves that is making them feel as though there is a hole to be filled.

The most important thing though is that the practitioner is both able to examine those motivations mindful of one’s spending.

*and* be honest about what it means for their practice. Magical practitioners are told to ‘know thyself’, and for good reason: the practice of magic (in whatever form) contains many pitfalls. For many, if not all of us, exercises involving mindfulness and discipline, form a chunk of the core of our training.

Which means that while we may be as susceptible to the allure of spiritual junk as the next person, most of us already have the tools for avoiding that trap.

Questions like “Why do you want that thing?” and “What use has it?” are important to ask when considering a purchase. It’s important to be

However, equally important is the idea that you can buy something just because you happen to like it. Sometimes I think (and I know I do this at times, it’s a side effect of growing up poor), we try to justify our purchases too much by finding a use for them.

But which is worse?

Buying something because you like it, or buying something because you’ve not only convinced yourself you need it but have come to believe it necessary? There’s a kind of liberation to be had here too – especially if you’re the kind of person to try and justify your purchases like that. Because the chance is that if you cannot even indulge yourself with the odd bit of tchotchke without feeling guilty (assuming no dire financial straits here), then you’re also likely the kind of person who feels guilty about spending your free time doing the things you want, or having hobbies that do not produce items to sell or give as gifts. And that is no healthy mindset to have.

Tag: Spiritual junk

Story-Spirits, Games, And The AMA That Went Wrong