Fashionably Late(er), Part Two: #OcculTea

Finally, I get back to this blog and the next part of the #OcculTea discussion. It took me long enough, didn’t it?

We’re on Topic 2 today: Influencer Authenticity. Alright, I don’t consider myself an “Influencer.” Let’s face facts, most people have no idea who I am. Yet, lol. My opinions on this are definitely from the outside looking in, for the most part. I am on the Internet, so there will be a few things I’ll comment on from my own perspective, though.

Out of what I share on social media, how much of it is staged vs reality?:

At the moment, I don’t share anything personal in the way of religious or magical work online. I’m not sure where I’m standing with that at the moment.

I can’t see myself sharing pictures or videos of what I’m actually doing, no matter how picturesque they might be. There’s a number of reasons why not do to such things, in my opinion. I might share pictures or videos if I ever did work for someone else; but I’d only share it with them, not the entire World Wide Web.

What do I think staged vs reality is another question. And from this “outsider” I’m going to say that a good 95% of what is depicted online is staged, or outright faked. What can I say, I’m a skeptic.

This is where things start to get reallllllllly interesting

Do I think there is an element of censorship in online spaces? How do I decipher what is “appropriate” to share online vs what to keep privately? Is this based on “social media etiquette” or a personal preference?

Censorship. That’s a loaded word these days. There is some actual censorship in that each platform has its rules and regulations on what can be said on it. Its absolutely understandable. So yes, there is censorship but its nothing to be fearful of or angry about.

Is there peer-pressure based censorship? That’s another question. To my mind, most of that is related again, to which platform you’re talking about. But yes, it is out there, and on some platforms its out of control.

TikTok. TikTok is TikToxic. I have witnessed creators on that platform being canceled. Actually canceled. Not just bullied, but run off the platform (in one case several times) because of a video that somehow “offended”. Who did the video offend? Too often its defensive of someone who was allegedly defended. SO many white knights flying to defend the theoretically offended person of color.

Misunderstanding is rife; the vast majority of anger ridden youngsters (most of them are Gen Z) have no idea what they’re talking about, and there’s no explaining it. As a matter of fact, the more the victim tries to explain their stand, the worse the screams of APPROPRIATION!!!

They take everything out of its context. They do not have much knowledge of cultural history or what who did when or got what from whom. And they don’t care. They’re right.

There’s too damn much of that in the world. Everyone would rather be right than do the right thing.

How do I decipher what is “appropriate” to share online vs what to keep privately? Is this based on “social media etiquette” or a personal preference?

As far as the written word goes, I’d say I share just about everything that is mine to share. I’ll change names when its not mine to share. I don’t share information about other people, just myself. I don’t know if I’d say that’s necessarily “social media etiquette” as much as it is “media etiquette” as it was considered polite well before the Internet came around.

As far as pictorial evidence of what I do, or where I work (altars, etc.) I ask. Its really that simple. Its the same idea as changing names or not sharing stories that are not mine; if I take a picture of an altar, whichever altar, its not a picture of me. Its a picture of their space, and so its only polite to ask first.

I’d say its not quite either, then. Its really just polite, plain old etiquette. shrug

Have I ever encountered or heard of grifters in our community? Do I recognize them? What are significant signs of grifters in our community?

Now its getting juicy!

Yes. I have encountered grifters; grifters of many shapes and sizes, so to speak.

My favorite was a TikTok fellow who got angry and was trying to insult another creator, saying that she couldn’t even manage a basic glamor spell.

Ummmm…if you have to rely on and constantly use glamor spells to get work doing spells through TikTok? You’re not much of a witch. I know more than one who, with NO social media at all, NO glamor spells at all, is not only one of the most accurate witches I’ve ever known, she’s never had trouble finding work. It finds her.

The only thing that witch is fit to sell would be glamor spells. I wouldn’t trust him with any other work. Is he intentionally grifting? I wouldn’t make the accusation because I really don’t know. But I know he can’t be trusted, and that people are apparently paying him to conduct spellwork for them. Or at least that’s what he likes to make it look like online.

I suppose that’s one of the signs of a grifter, just being educated enough to know what is what, and logic enough to put 2 + 2 together.

Intuition will play in as well. Listening to that still, small voice that is screaming at you. Sometimes its much more abrupt and simple to see. That DM from that influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers that you adore, suddenly out of the blue, saying she got a feeling off of your picture and wants to “give” you a reading.

Personally, when I’m in the mood I love playing with those people. One of them said they had gotten a “feeling” off of my picture, when I was using a crystal formation as my pic. That was classic. They got SO upset they said my son would be dead in 24 hours. I don’t have any sons, let alone biological children.

Both my daughters adopted me when they were not only adults, but had their own children. I adore them like they were my own, and have known them since their vulnerable teenage years, but they’re not technically or legally my actual children.

The grifting of that sort is rife everywhere, on every platform on the internet. I’ve encountered it. But then, there are mundane scammers everywhere, so I’m not surprised in the least.

I despise, however, the ones who are obviously using their platforms to convince people to buy things that are absolutely wrong or unnecessary. Okay, I don’t know a witch alive who can resist crystals, that’s not worrisome in the least. But those lemon hex videos just make me want to scream. And cord cutting…so much cord cutting.

So there’s a lot of nonsense out there. Coincidentally I’m sure it occasionally appears to work, and so brings business. What’s that phrase, “a sucker is born every minute”? Its true. I don’t have any problem with it, honestly, except that they are requesting FAR TOO MUCH MONEY for services rendered, in most cases.

What tools are helpful to decipher information, and how can we as a community prevent widespread misinformation?

I’ve found, at least for me, that there’s a back-and-forth that’s necessary to ascertain truth. I’m an academic type, so I would stick to actual books, the nerdier the better. However, sticking to historical and/or archaeological resources only recreates a dead religion. Mine’s a living one.

In the witchcraft world, I’ve found some good information from books as well, but that alone isn’t going to assure the information is accurate, or that those spells work for your circumstances.

Experience combined with academics, combined with experience, combined with divination is the answer for me, at least. I’ve also found that discussions with someone whose opinion I trust can help clear out cobwebs when my logic isn’t logicking.

This is the real problem because I’ve seen so many people who want to jump right from wanting to be a powerful witch without any studying or practice or anything at all much. Read a book, and BAM! You’re a witch. Because, you know, after all, intention is the only thing that matters. That sentence alone has made more trouble in the witchcraft world than nearly any other sentence uttered. At least in the last 10 years or so.

What can the community do?

First problem, what community?

I’ve tried, very hard, in the past, to find such a beast. And I’ve failed horribly. For a number of reasons, several times actually, and I’ve learned a lot from both that experience and therapy. I don’t feel there is a community.

I feel there are people who think they ought to be in charge of a community. There are those who think they know what’s wrong, who’s wrong, and how to fix it all. But in a non-community full of people who don’t agree on more than one point at any one time, its awful hard to set “rules.”

Threefold law? Harm none? No particular rules at all? Black/white? Wait…no…its baneful now, not black. Grey? Polytheist? Witch? Wiccan? Heathen?

Its not a non-community, I suppose, as much as it is a loose affiliation of communities and loners who can’t agree on anything anyway, except perhaps their hatred of Christianity in most cases. That’s a whole different subject.

I don’t know that a non-community that can’t agree on what is correct and what isn’t correct can actually self-regulate scammers. Its bad enough now that the self-regulating world of TikTok likes to scream “APPROPRIATION!!!” any time a white person pulls out an egg. It just doesn’t seem possible or even a good idea to me.

How does a large following impact the perception of the creator? Does this immediately make them an “expert”? Or are there other assumptions as to why they may have a large following?

long, drawn out sigh…

I think my FB page for the business is about to hit 800, if I remember correctly. Yeah. NOT a big influencer/creator, not even close. So this one is definitely as seen from the outside!

Yes. It does impact the perception of the creator. For me, its for the worse. I don’t trust large creators as far as witchcraft or paganism goes. I’m actually less likely to believe them, normally. There’s a scale there. If there’s something they’ve done or are doing that I admire I might give them a little more authority. Maybe. On rare occasion. And honestly, that goes to everything.

Smaller creators have their place in the internet world, and honestly I trust them more. Not only because they’re smaller, and seem less of a “sell out,” but because they’re reachable. If I leave a comment, or a question, they’re more likely to see it and respond.

Larger creators don’t give an ish. You’re just a number, just another ad they’ve sold, or a potential client, or a potential buyer. Not a potential friend, rival, ally, consultant, conspirator, etc.

Larger creators also seem more fake to me. Maybe its just because they’re better produced, can spend money on a professional editor, and really good props. They pay attention to background and lighting, whereas a lot of us are lucky to upgrade a cell phone to film on.

They’re also, by and large, more attractive. Not necessarily physically although that’s a lot of it. Everything’s more attractive. They’re frolicking in deep woods amongst the bluebells, not a public park. They’re drinking herbal tea out of a classy cup-and-saucer instead of a tea bag out of a cheap mug. They have all the asthetics and none of the content.

Some of that, I believe, is also that to get to thousands of followers, you have to put out a lot of content. For some creators, its the same old Wicca 101 over-and-over-and-over. In order to keep your consumers coming back, you really do have to find that niche and stay in it. Making sure you give those consumers what they want.

Dear gods, that sounds dreadful to me.

I can see, easily, how dreadful and boring that could get. How it would suck the inspiration out of the creator and leave them feeling, and sounding flat. They might realize what’s happening, they might not. *shrug*

I don’t follow large creators, for the most part. Larger than me, sure, because everyone is. 😀 But the really big ones? No. I mean, some of that is because there aren’t that many creators covering information I would want.

I will say though, that’s true of most topics but not all. There are some history YouTube channels that I adore, and they’re pretty huge. They’re informational and entertainment, but generally I know just enough about the history they’re covering to get out if its not quite right.

How does one maintain the balance of authenticity and content creation?

To thine own self be true

That’s it. The creators that I will follow, regardless of size, are the ones that are authentically themselves. They speak from their heart, often off the cuff with no script or preconceived theme. I can’t get enough of that. They’re human. They’re relatable. They’re believable.

If a creator can resist following the money, and not simply pump out content that pleases one majority of their audience instead of speaking their truth, they’ll get my attention. But that’s not how to grow an audience usually, and the temptation to go after the big bucks is too great. I get it, if you’re going to put the effort into it, you want to make a decent living at it.

Its just not going to keep my attention. But then, I don’t assume I’m the target audience. Many people in this non-community seem to be happy to watch pretty nonsense instead of gritty truth.

Looks like there might have to be a part 3; we’ll see how long it takes me to finish THAT one, lol!

Fashionably Late, Part One: #OcculTea

I watch an awful lot of YouTube videos these days. That habit began because I absolutely detest commercials, and only got worse when I started researching Etsy. YouTube is a wonderful resource for all sorts of educational information, if you’re careful.

As I’ve been “witchy” for about 35 years or so, I don’t normally watch a lot of pagan/wiccan/witch content. So much of it is just Wicca 101, or other 101 types of videos, and those are simply not relevant to me.

Or so I thought.

I got myself a TikTok account so I could watch my daughters’ videos. I quickly discovered TikTok isn’t really the place for me, or at least I’m not the TikTok video kind of creator. I like words, written words, so I can think carefully before expressing myself.

I also prefer longer content. I just don’t have the patience for tiny little videos and scroll, scroll, scroll…If a video is less than 20 minutes I feel jilted.

I did, however, find a few excellent creators over there who happened to have YouTube channels, and so I recently began following them. So that is how I finally caught wind of #OcculTea. As a woman with a lot of opinions, I couldn’t resist throwing in my two cents and change, so here I am.

This hashtag was started by three content creators from YouTube; Ella Harrison, The Redheaded Witch, and the Polish Folk Witch. Admittedly, I wasn’t following any of them, but I’ve now watched at least a couple of their entries about this topic. I’ll likely be watching more of them later, but I really didn’t want to be any later to this party than I already am. I believe the post was shared first to Instagram, not YouTube, but I’m not over there just yet so I’m not sure.

Introduction: Introduce yourself. How long have you been participating in the witchcraft online space? What practices and topics do you discuss primarily?

I have a whole page here as an introduction, but I’ll try to give a quick re-introduction in case anyone is here straight from the hashtag and hasn’t read it yet.

I go by Camylleon. Its a nickname I started with back when AOL first went to 13 characters from 8, and I was too excited that I was able to get a name that didn’t have to have numbers on it. That’ll give you an idea of how long I’ve been online.

I was immediately at least reading in the witchcraft spaces I could find back then, because it was a lifeline. Up to that point, I had been scrambling to piece together information from library books, what few books I could afford from a local metaphysical store, and what little they carried at Borders.

Yeah, dating myself again. Borders. That goes back, doesn’t it? I wasn’t posting as much back then. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer. I was learning. I was looking for teachers, information, anything. Times were tough. I even went through a three-level Wicca school. Paid for a lifetime membership and everything.

So to answer the second question, how long have I been participating? Oh, I guess the mid 90s? If my math is right, let’s say about 30 years or so, give-or-take.

What practices and topics do you discuss primarily? I’ve only just gotten started, twice now, maybe three times really, with this generation of this blog so its still sort of hard to tell. I ramble a lot. I like rambling. I haven’t really ruled anything out yet.

My own practice right at this moment is hard to explain. I can’t call it worship exactly. I work with Ancestral Spirits, primarily, but there are a few Deities around as well. I consider myself an Omnist. All Entities exist and are valid; every last one. I might disagree about different qualities or aspects of the Entity, but I’ve no doubt they exist.

All Spirits are, at the end of the day, Spirits. I don’t believe that humans quite understand the differences between disincarnate human spirits, saints, orishas, lwa, demons, angels, demigods, daimons, gods, etc., etc.

Currently, I’m spending most of my writing on sharing my journey and how I got here from there. I think its probably the most relatable part of who I am. Its something we all have in common, we learn as we go. Sometimes its harder and sometimes its easier, but we seldom end where we began.

TOPIC ONE: IMPACT ON COMMUNITY

What is my personal reasoning/inspiration behind sharing my practice online? Do I seek to educate, learn, or connect?

I don’t know that I’ve actually thought much about it. I have a long history of having my privacy invaded, so I suppose in some ways this is the only way I can do it anymore. If its public, it can’t be violated?

Despite having an abominable experience a number of years ago with yet another couple of leeches, I keep thinking that maybe someone out there wants or needs to hear what I have to say. Maybe someone else out there feels the same way I do. Maybe they need the encouragement and information I wanted and needed 30 years ago.

What am I looking to achieve by participating?

Nothing, except perhaps to throw my opinion out into the void, get it off my shoulders, and move on. Its a release.

As far as educate, learn, or connect…

I’m always looking to learn. I’ll happily share any knowledge I have if that counts as educating. I’m leery of “connecting,” though, as the odds seem pretty much against me in that department. Although I will say that when I connect and it sticks, I do pretty damn well. The few friends I’ve kept are some of the best a person could hope for.

I just get hurt more often than not. Still, I’m here so I suppose I’m willing to risk it. Therapy. Therapy helps a lot.

How do I believe social media, as a whole, has impacted the community?

Its all at once wonderful and horrifying.

But then, I keep saying it is what you make of it. So I suppose that explains it. People are all at once wonderful and horrifying.

If you fill your feed with cute puppies and kitties, that’s what you’re going to get. If you fill it with seething hate-filled rants from people who have the complete opposite views from you because you love to argue, that’s what you’re going to get.

Social media is us.

How do I think social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have each impacted education/sharing information?

To me, two of those three haven’t done anything terribly good for either education or sharing information.

TikTok, in particular, is horrible. Sharing is easy, too easy. Anyone can do it, and it can be difficult for someone who is coming in with a blank slate to tell good information from bad.

There’s an awful lot of bad on TikTok.

There’s some good as well, but if I were going into it with no background information or damn good intuition to guide me, I’d be more confused or more misled, one or the other.

Both Instagram and TikTok are big on looks. The better you look, the better your following. They’re shallow platforms with unrealistic depictions of the “ease” of witchcraft, and if you ask me, the aesthetics of witchcraft.

I get it, its cool. Don’t get me wrong. I love the crystals and the mood lighting and the dried plants hanging all over. I want to live in the Practical Magic house, too. But that’s Hollywood, not reality. TikTok and Instagram are quite good at packaged sound bites of cute, repeated information. Not so good at actual education. At best, if you were looking at the Linktrees or other links in profiles, you might be able to find quality information if you dig. A lot.

Sharing, well, they’re both too good at that. Bad and good information travel like wildfire, and sometimes do as much damage.

I’ve also seen how peer pressure functions in those two platforms. There are fads, fashionable types or genres of witchcraft that I find suddenly everyone is practicing. Sometimes for the wrong reasons.

YouTube is slightly different. Not that there isn’t the same percentage of bad to good there, but to me there’s more variety. Longer video time also means its possible for those who want to provide information can share detailed, quality information. If they want to.

The problem there is that YouTube doesn’t exactly promote quality. It also promotes the pretty, the angering, the strong emotional reactions. So if you rely on the algorithm to suggest videos to you, you’re not going to find much. You have to be actively searching and in control of your feed.

It is also what you make of it. 🙂

Additionally, there’s a lack of good advanced information, and an awful lot of 101. I believe there are a lot of creators in all the different subjects on YouTube who just get burned out with being stuck in entry-level information. Its as tedious for them as it is for viewers.

Is consuming witchcraft content becoming a substitute for practice?

Not for me. Could it, though? Sure. Its not much different than people who read and research and research and read but never practice. That was me for an awful long time; I was simply not secure enough in my knowledge to do it myself, by myself.

That’s what can happen when people don’t have IRL guidance. When you have someone there to hold your hand, to walk you through it, its easier. Much easier, like so many things in life. Especially when people are shouting from the sidelines about whatever “law” you might accidentally break.

I finally got off of my ass and got to work, and once I did, I realized how silly I had been. I would imagine there are a lot of new, “Baby” witches in that same position. No shame.

There could also be people who will never actively practice. I don’t have a problem with that either.

If you know Christianity, or any other mainstream religion really, you quickly figure out that there are priests, lay people, and congregations. Not everyone is made to do the Spiritual Work. That’s one of the many reasons there’s televised services; not everyone can or wants to attend church, but they want it in their lives.

It doesn’t mean they’re any less believers, they’re any less pagan or what-have-you. Its just not their calling. They might attend large gatherings for holidays, post happy solstice messages on their social media, and watch as many witch or pagan videos as they like. It doesn’t mean they’re any less dedicated.

There’s a place for all of us.

Alright, I’m leaving it there because its quite long enough already! Part Two to be written when I’ve recovered!

Side Step

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…

I just did the math. I met my BFE (Best Friend EVER) 17 years ago. Its gone too goddamn fast. I can’t believe how long we’ve been together now, and at the same time it seems like we’ve known each other forever. Weird how that works, isn’t it?

I remember when I met her. I had moved the store from one side of the theater to the other which had given me a lot more room. It was still a ridiculously small storefront, but it was what I could afford, and it worked. Jewelry is, after all, pretty small.

I’d already been invaded by the first round of leeches. I’ve had problems with leeches all my life, so this was no different. Its only recently that I’ve been able to figure this problem out, and Bestie has been a major part of understanding why I keep getting into that cycle.

It took finding someone who knows how to be a best friend for me to be able to compare and understand who isn’t a friend, to start on that path.

The leeches in this part of my life we’ve been referring to as the “Evil Three.” Not as much for anonymity as because it seems people we never want to see again have a strange way of showing up after we say their names out loud. Call it superstition, call it evocation magic, but it happens an awful lot. Its been nearly 20 years since they’ve been relevant, let alone evil, but we’ll roll with this for now.

The players here are Evil A, Evil J, and Evil M. M wasn’t as evil as the other two; he was as much a victim as I was, however he had a helluva anger issue, and lost all concepts of rationality when he’d get angry. He was also hopelessly (and stupidly) in love with Evil A, so he had a tendency to take her causes a bit too much to heart. To this day, I feel sorry for him.

I met Bestie when she came with Evil J to the store for the downtown business Halloween trick-or-treating. It was more of a social function than anything else, and Evil J was dressing as a witch. Bestie was ostensibly there to help her with her costume which was a witch complete with prosthetic nose.

A nose that Bestie and I realized she didn’t even need. It wasn’t much bigger than her own, frankly.

Now, when I started this store, and for that matter when I moved into this house some ten years later, I thought of myself as at least nominally Wiccan. I’d started drifting into polytheism by virtue of having run into a couple of Deities already, but I still thought in a Wiccan framework. When I set up my “Spooky Room” at the house here, I had four small altars for each of the Quarters, and the main altar in the middle so I could face whatever way I’d needed. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrry Wiccan-ish.

Bestie came in with this energy I was immediately drawn to. She has this bright red hair, a little girl voice that doesn’t match her physique but really matches her child like nature and joy, and she was wearing layers of beaded necklaces. I was so curious, intrigued, and drawn in. I always am curious about people who are different, so I suppose that isn’t all that odd for me. I didn’t want her to think she was some sort of freak show, so I was trying to let her release whatever information about herself she wanted to in a pace she was comfortable with.

That wasn’t easy!

As I remember it though, we took to each other immediately. Talking at a hundred words a minute or more. She was the first Voodoo practitioner I’d ever met, at least to my own knowledge. Curious doesn’t really even begin to explain it. Given I’ve had a hyper-fixation on religious beliefs and magickal practices as long as I can remember, to say I was obsessed is a polite term.

Thankfully, she seems to have felt the same way, and she came back. A lot.

But things happened, as they always do for me. The Evil Three became more and more controlling, more and more manipulative. They also showed up at the store more and more. It became harder and harder for me to get business in as they were generally always there, and it started to look like a hangout.

They weren’t the only ones, either. There was a handful of teenagers, or I should say successions of teenagers who did the same thing. I didn’t mind as much Friday nights as the town had a car show every Friday night so having people in and around the store wasn’t so very odd. But Evil A, in particular, began acting like she owned the place.

Now, I made several of my own mistakes in all of this, and I’m sure to get into those sooner or later. Some of that was that I was too sympathetic to Evil M. As I said, we’ll get there.

Evil J was the particular problem at this juncture though.

First off, I realized how little she actually knew. She’d been in a coven, I hadn’t. I wanted to have Wicca 101 classes at night once a week when we were closed. As I hadn’t been in an actual coven, I was a little insecure teaching that part of the religion. I could teach from a sole practitioner perspective, but the coven she’d attended had been Gardnerian. I wanted that input for the class. So I asked her if she’d like to teach the class with me.

The suggestion I made is that I would handle the spell work portion, if she’d handle the ritual portion. We could alternate weeks, and I’d jump in for the solitary work if she wasn’t comfortable with it.

We started off the first lesson with her presentation. I really ought to have discussed more with her before hand, I really ought to have…

Because immediately she got into spell work. She didn’t know the difference between spells and rituals. I don’t even think, in retrospect, that she understood the Wiccan holidays enough to describe them, let alone teach about them.

It was disappointing, to say the least.

Evil J almost immediately, as she saw Bestie and I bonding, started bitching. There was always something wrong about Bestie. It got old, fast. And as much as they were supposed to be best friends at the time, she was constantly putting her down. That is, unless she was bragging about her. If anyone at all said something about Bestie being smart, or cool, or impressed with her in anyway, suddenly Bestie was J’s friend. It was odd.

It didn’t take long for her to start shoving Bestie off, either. She didn’t drive, so she was dependent on the train. Her (at the time) boyfriend would pick her up from the train station. If she wanted to stay later or she missed her train, she would ask for J to take her home. Now J lived to the east of the store, Bestie lived one town farther to the east, about 10 minutes or so.

But it was too far for her. Every single time Bestie wanted to stay and asked if J would take her home, J would say yes, and then J would, without Bestie hearing, ask me to either persuade her to take the train or ask for someone else to take her home. After telling Bestie she would drive her home.

Sometimes I would just wait with Bestie at the train station, making jokes about it being such a “horrible neighborhood” that I didn’t want her to risk being there by herself. Eventually though, I started just driving her home. It was faster than the train, and we didn’t have to stand around at the station waiting, which made it even faster for her. It didn’t seem to take more than a few minutes for me to drive her either, so even though I was a good 45 minutes to the west of there, it wasn’t problematic for me at all.

And it gave us a chance to talk. Alone.

That explains how we got closer and closer. Considering the kind of people we both are, it also explains how we started exchanging information about religion and spellwork. Because of course we did. This also explains how I started to understand Voodoo.

It wasn’t long before we parted ways with the Evil Three. Maybe I’ll get into that some day, maybe not. There’s not a lot there I care about anymore, except for the lessons I learned.

Bestie quit her job and became my “work wife” not long after we saw the Evil Three depart. We spent more than eight hours a day together, six days a week, and never once tired of each other. In all our years, we’ve had one break down (I’ll get into that, for sure…) and I got mad at her exactly once, but it wasn’t even her fault then. I think she got mad at me once, too, so we’re even. In seventeen years. That’s not a bad run.

At some point between her being there sometimes and being there all the time, Bestie met a Babalawo at a local flea market where he had a booth. For those unaware, this is a type of priest through Ifa or Santeria. That’s how the Side Step happened.

Throughout this all, I’m wresting with what I’ve learned. Because someone so burnt by Christianity, who threw it out whole cloth, is going to have issues with Voodoo. Especially someone with one foot already in polytheism who hasn’t completely deconstructed Christianity yet.

Voodoo has a veneer of Christianity over it to this day. Some people have started trying to “restore” it to its original pre-slavery context, making it into some sort of African Polytheism, but that’s not the tradition practiced by most. For the rest of the world, they’re Catholics who happen to venerate the Lwa.

Then, Bestie ends up taking me in to see her Babalawo, who found my ruling Orisha. I had to start smashing square pegs into octagon shaped holes. It wasn’t easy. An awful lot didn’t get straightened out until I began to understand both the history of Christianity better, and the concept of Omnism.

Funny how our paths will seem so straight and predictable for years and years until we just get curious and find that weird path off to the side of the main path and we end up on a completely different, and even less trodden path.

Fresh Eyes

Fuch’s Dystrophy is a condition where your cornea doesn’t release the liquid in your eye like it ought to. It makes for some gorgeous affects, and horrible driving. Especially at night. Everything has such beautiful auras. I’ve said it rather consistently now, its like living in Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night.

Fuch’s Dystrophy. I know, it’s a weird name, isn’t it? Everyone pronounces it FOOCHES, likely to avoid the obvious. My Dad has it, so I knew it was distinctly possible I’d end up with it as well. Knowing what the symptoms are, it didn’t surprise me at all when I realized I was experiencing them.

It seemed just a matter of time.

I didn’t expect to be sent for surgery immediately. I figured there would be some sort of “conservative treatment” as it seems that’s what every doctor does first. Likely, that’s because that’s the demand of the insurance companies, but don’t get me started on that.

Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night. See that aura on every star? Those swirls in the night? I did!

If you’re curious about it, Fuch’s Dystrophy at American Academy of Ophthalmology

When the yellow rotating light on top of a tow truck on the Interstate caused an affect something like a black hole, I knew I shouldn’t be driving at night anymore. The first time I saw the surgeon, she grounded me from driving altogether. That sucks.

Back in my Dad’s day, he had to have complete cornea implants. With stitches. He had to hang his head off the bed to sleep at night for three days or something like that. He popped the stitches on one eye and ended up having to live with that until he was up for a second set, about 20 years. Sounds like fun, right?

So I was nervous to say the least. Nervous but excited, and in a way, in an important way, lucky. See, my husband had a swollen blood vessel behind his left eye for which he gets injections. Then he ended up with shingles in his right eye for which he had drops; drops that caused a cataract for which he now needs surgery.

Lucky because although it was surgery and didn’t sound fun at all, it was “one and done.” No injections. A fair trade, I’d say.

The first surgery went along well enough except that the doctor failed to mention the aftercare instructions meant that for 24 hours I could only stand or sit for 15 minutes at a time, followed by an hour of laying flat with my head straight up and staring at the ceiling. Starting immediately. In order to get home then, we had a normally 45 minute drive which would have taken 3-4 hours, and then a postop first thing in the morning the next day. Um, no.

Without planning then, we found the closest hotel and I checked in. As I approached the counter, the desk clerk said the name of the clinic we’d been at. I guess the eye patch was a dead giveaway and we weren’t the first patients there. That was the case, as it turned out they had a patient discount.

This all seems like everything’s going along swell, right? Just wait for it…

They no longer perform a complete cornea implant for this Dystrophy. They graft. Sort of like patchwork. Its brilliant, because it means that a donated cornea can stretch so much further. The presurgical procedure for this involves a laser making a hole in the iris. My doctor told me it would feel like a rubberband snapped on my eyeball. She was right. That was exactly what it felt like. This creates a bubble in the eye that presses the graft into place and holds it there.

So far so good, right?

That night I was fine for a few hours but then I encountered horrible, terrible pain.

I had been told to call if there were any problems but does anyone ever really believe that? I didn’t. All I could take was Acetaminophen, and Acetaminophen PM, and boy howdie did I. Take the pill, go back to sleep. Fortunately the hotel had gigantic puffy pillows that made the perfect “V” shape to hold my head in place, so I was able to sleep.

I saw the doctor in the morning, and she knew what had happened almost immediately. I had somehow, by rubbing my eye or something, moved the bubble so that it was lodged behind my pupil.

That explained the pain.

She set me up for surgery immediately after her morning office hours. Their surgery center was in the same building, so all we had to do was move from one waiting room to another. Unfortunately, I had eaten that morning so all I couldn’t have had anesthesia. I didn’t care. It couldn’t hurt worse, and they promised me that I’d feel fine.

So I waited. By waiting, I mean I fell asleep. In one waiting room and in the other, leaning on my husband’s shoulder for the most part, and an obliging post for a bit. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and I wasn’t even popping the Acetaminophen PM anymore. But hell, it passed the time.

12:30 and they called me in for surgery. It was the lunch hour, so the surgical area was weirdly quiet as the team working on me were the only people back there. I was all comfy on the surgical cart, as ready as could be. The doctor was dressed for surgery, pulled the eye open, and said, “its back in place.”

The same way I’d knocked it out of place, I apparently knocked it back into place. Now that I was awake for a few minutes, I did finally notice that there was a lot less pain.

The second eye was a lot less trouble. We knew the routine now. I had a reservation and packed a bag for the hotel. The hubs got me set up, then went home to be with the cats & my best friend stayed the night with me. Hubs wanted to make sure there was someone with me, just in case. So we extended the stay an extra night just so we could just hang out.

I thought, for sure, that my eyes were as fantastic as they could be when this was all done. The actual healing was almost immediate. Two days, tops, and my vision was up to pre-surgery condition, a week and I could see better. That was it, I was sure.

Until they tested my vision. I now have my very first pair of all-day glasses. Not just readers, mind you. Proper glasses. I apparently now have an astigmatism, which doesn’t surprise me either. I thought my vision was as good as it was going to get, until I picked these up.

So I’m back to work. I can read. I can bead. I can create. Its keeping me busy, but then it was keeping me busy before, but I’m having a lot more fun with it now that I can see.

Fashionably Late(er), Part Two: #OcculTea

Finally, I get back to this blog and the next part of the #OcculTea discussion. It took me long enough, didn’t it? We’re on Topic 2 today: Influencer Authenticity. Alright, I don’t consider myself an “Influencer.” Let’s face facts, most people have no idea who I am. Yet, lol. My opinions on this are definitely…

by Camylleon April 12, 2024

Fashionably Late, Part One: #OcculTea

I watch an awful lot of YouTube videos these days. That habit began because I absolutely detest commercials, and only got worse when I started researching Etsy. YouTube is a wonderful resource for all sorts of educational information, if you’re careful. As I’ve been “witchy” for about 35 years or so, I don’t normally watch…

by Camylleon March 24, 2024March 23, 2024

Side Step

I just did the math. I met my BFE (Best Friend EVER) 17 years ago. Its gone too goddamn fast. I can’t believe how long we’ve been together now, and at the same time it seems like we’ve known each other forever. Weird how that works, isn’t it? I remember when I met her. I…

by Camylleon March 22, 2024March 22, 2024

Free to Worship or Not

My years in Christianity weren’t exactly a waste, for all that they were debilitating to my psyche, I did learn quite a bit. Some of that was definitely painful and hard to extract from my brain later in life, some of it was life-changing and highly influential on my future spiritual and magical life.

First and foremost, the Bible became one of my hyperfixations. Well before I knew what that was, I had begun reading books about “The Book.” You’ll hear zealous Christians constantly push reading the Bible, over and over again. Memorizing verses, reading obscure books out of it, and of course, believing the interpretation of whatever guru-type-pastor is in vogue today. If you’re the type that doesn’t passively read, if you’re the type of person who thinks and analyzes while reading as I am, this is a sure-fire way to read yourself back out of Christianity. Because that’s exactly what happened.

I’m not just fixated on Christianity, I’m fixated on religion, and on mythology as well. When I started analyzing the Flood, for example, and realized that comparative religion and mythology had many similar tales, the passive reader might expect that is because the story is true. An active reader? I realized that yes, there were many similar stories. And I realized several were older than the earliest written Judaic text mentioning the story. So logic would have the older story as the more likely original.

Ummmm…

If you’re wondering, this is still something I’m absolutely obsessed with, although I find it rotates regularly with other fixations now. As an adult, I don’t have quite as much time to devote to these studies of mine. I’ve added into the mix cults and what I’d call para-religions. I feel a kinship with people who have escaped cults, likely because of all they have in common with the Evangelical/Charismatic religion I’m a refugee of.

Oddly, as its something I had to wrestle with, I also felt the presence of a god for the first time.

You can imagine, I’m sure, this was a real bear to merge together. I threw out Christianity whole; baby and bathwater altogether. But at the same time, I had experiences that could not easily be dismissed.

In the tradition I was raised in, there were three positions taken by the acolytes. The crucifer who carried the cross, and then the others who each held a torch on either side of the cross and just behind for the procession and recession. What I began to understand quickly is that the person who is the crucifer is the focus of attention and energy from the congregation. And in ECUSA, as in other traditions, there’s a reverence that’s given as the procession passes. If you’re even remotely sensitive (at the time I was very closed off energetically, its really amazing anything got thru at all, that will tell you how much I’m talking about here), you can’t help but feel that energy. You’re a funnel, taking all that energy, and its going through you to its destination.

And yes, that destination is a Deity. Ironically, most Christians don’t have any idea of this at all.

I did, and I do. It gave me a great deal of difficulty as I threw the entire belief system out, and wrestled with all the condemnation that came with that belief system. I embraced several different versions of paganism one, after the other, and every single time had to wrestle with where “God” and “Christianity” fit into my life.

Santeria and Voodoo were the worst. Those born into those religions have no compunction at all about blending African spirits with the Christian God, Church, and all its trappings. They don’t even blink. It hurt me so horribly, I can’t even explain it. Its like trying to use an overnight bag when you’re going to be away from home for a month. It just didn’t fit.

Here, at this place in the story, is where my hyperfixation comes in handy.

There are a lot of gods actually written of in the Bible, most of which are buried under layers of culture and mythology. Two are closer to the surface than most; Elohim who is actually a pantheon of gods under a primary god named El (Get it??? Beth-El??? After you’ve seen it once, El is everywhere in the Bible…I love tying things together like that!), and of course Yahweh. Thing is, both these gods were Canaanite gods. Remember the Canaanites? The ones the Hebrews were instructed time and time again to steer clear of? Those same Canaanites is exactly where their primary god came from, a mix of El and Yahweh. Turns out the Hebrews very likely were Canaanites who split off and claimed this God as the god of their tribe.

El and Yahweh have little else in common, frankly. El is the wise, old, white-haired gentle father god, and Yahweh is the vindictive, cruel god of storms, lightning and punishment.

This is the moment I became an Omnist. I see it so clearly now that its ridiculous. There are indeed two different gods of the Bible, or at least there are two primary and active gods in our world today. There’s Yahweh, the god of Evangelicals and Conservatives who instructs hatred of the fellow man, cruelty, and war; and El, the god of peace, love, and understanding who we learn of through the Christ of the New Testament.

Now, saying that either of those gods are gods doesn’t mean that I am called to them, or have any need to worship them. I can recognize that they exist along side my own Spirits because two things (or more) can actually be true at the same time. I don’t need El or Yahweh, and they don’t need me. I belong elsewhere. That doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you that you don’t belong with one or both of them. That’s your business not mine, and I’d no sooner try to tell you who to worship than I would tell you who to have sex with or not, for that matter.

I am now free. Free to work with Spirits who are under the reign of Christ or El (I’ll keep away from Yahweh as much as I can, but thanks anyway) such as those Spirits of Voodoo or Ifa that I love, and not have to give up my pagan ways. I can follow new pagan and magical directions as my own Soul guides me because I do get instruction directly from my Spirits; and who am I to say that my Brigid is your Brigid? Perhaps she’s different, and then has different requests and needs?

That’s a whole other can of worms though. I’d best stop here or I’ll never stop tonight!

This blog post was written after I’d begun my evening “medication” (medical marijuana) please forgive any awkward phrasing or grammar, I will go back over it when I’m in a more sober state of mind. Expect editing!

The Beginning

As with most people in the US of A, I was raised in a Christian household. Not my choice.

Like so many of us in the US of A who were raised in a Christian household, it messed with my mind. More than I ever knew, honestly. At the age of 52 my primary care doctor diagnosed me with anxiety when I broke down in her office. Again. The very first time I’d seen her, three years or so prior, I’d burst into tears and had a heart rate high enough that they slapped an EKG onto me to check my heart.

That was fun.

I was surprised and relieved all at the same time. She gave me a prescription and recommended therapy. I am happy to say that all the above is covered by our health insurance, a privilege not everyone in the US of A has. I am taking FULL advantage of this as long as I possibly can. After a false start with a therapist who did not fit me at all, my second try was a winner and I’m now actually starting to put myself back together again. Its been a long, hard road. Turns out that aside from the generic, garden variety social anxiety and the super-special avoidant personality disorder that comes up now-and-then, I also am the proud owner of some lovely PTSD, straight from Christianity.

And most of the damage was self-inflicted.

My major anxiety is related to a need for approval, love, acceptance. The usual, I suppose. This includes a need for my father’s approval. My father’s father was a Baptist minister, his mom played the organ for their children’s ministry. He converted to ECUSA when he and my mother married. Sweet, I know, but he never did lose the fire-and-brimstone edge to him .Now, they’re both Catholic and things got weirder. But we’ll get there eventually.

As explained to me by my therapist, we humans start to develop our own moral system somewhere around the age of 12 or so. I smothered mine. I forced my square peg into the Christian round hole (why does that sound mildly dirty?) for years. Forcing myself to accept the good girl myth and all the restrictions that come with it. I did some serious damage to my own psyche as a result. Could I blame my parents? Sure, plenty of people do. The truth is, however, that I’m complicit in this, and I know it. I own it.

At the height of my involvement with the Church, I was an acolyte (“altar girl”), a member of Junior Daughters of the King, I assisted Sunday School teachers (until they figured out I was too young), attended youth group weekly, and Bible Discipleship once a week. Fairly often, my brothers and I would be called in to assist at the early services when other acolytes weren’t available. On the most involved week, I would be at the 7:30 am service as an acolyte, I would be working for Jr. Daughters to tend the altar between services and lay out vestments, then down into the nursery to attend to that for the 9:00 service, again, for junior daughters, then I would attend the 10:30 or 11:25 services simply because I hadn’t sat through services myself yet. After lunch, I’d be at the church plenty early for youth group, and then Wednesday nights I’d return for Bible Discipleship. And that doesn’t include classes for my Confirmation.

I was involved.

Not all of that experience was bad. There were some experiences that have stuck with me throughout the years. At the same time, the damage I did to myself, the emotional and psychological damage that was done to me by both other church attendees and my own father are things I now have to deal with. You just can’t keep up with those expectations and live under a constant fear of hell without some damage.

When I was seventeen, the dam finally broke and broke with style although I hid it well. I still hide it well. My parents, now in their 80s, have no real concept of how far from Christian theology I have strayed. Everyone else in the world knows, but not my parents. Not because I’m seeking their approval still but because I love them. My mother isn’t as strict of a Christian as my father is still, to this day, and we’re extremely close. I love them both. They are true believers, and have every right to their own beliefs. But I couldn’t live my life happily if I thought they were on their knees praying for my soul every day of their lives. I will save them the anxiety and worry that I carry, I want them to enjoy these last years on earth.

There will be time enough for them to find out when they’re no longer physical beings.

This was originally published on my soon-to-be deleted blog W.I.T. on March 26, 2023

Rock my World:

Opalite

I have been involved with making jewelry in some form almost as long as I have been involved in alternative religions/Witchcraft. Almost. I got involved with a friend of mine in college doing a painted jewelry, so that would date me at about 30 years, give or take, of jewelry making. I tried to fix jewelry even before that, and made a few things as well. With no knowledge of hobby stores, jump hoops, clasps, or much of anything “professional,” I stripped baggie ties to use the wire with beads from broken necklaces. I guess I was “destined” for it or something. Or maybe I just inherited my grandma’s crafting gene/bug/disease. Not sure. That same grandma was a florist who had a membership for years to the “Mineral of the Month Club.” I wish it still existed! Her collection was part of my inheritance. Unfortunately, many of the specimens lost their boxes and cotton inserts, as well as labels, as they were tossed from one storage closet to another. That journey began only about five years ago when my Dad started cleaning out his own collections.

Fortunately, my own journey into the world of crystals and rocks had already begun before my dad started cleaning out his attic. In my 30s I had started making jewelry again, this time with semi-precious beads and Czech pressed glass accents. I’d found my niche. Unfortunately, as far as spiritual/magical uses go, my studies had all gone into my first love, herbalism. As I peddled my wares at a weekly outdoor market, I found myself fairly consistently asked what this stone or that gem was used for. So I found myself researching the metaphysical properties just to be able to answer questions.

Low grade opal, aka opalite

With all this, I’ve got more than a little background now in researching the metaphysical uses of stones, and somewhere around 20 years of working with them now, so I’ve picked up a thing or two here or there. I thought I’d start with the bullshit, though, set some of the records straight. There are some good websites out there, and there are some horrible ones. Its easy to find hundreds of properties for every mineral known to mankind, but a little harder to find sites that will give the hard, cold truth.

Therefore, we’re starting this adventure with Opalite. The term “opalite” can refer to two different “stones.” There is the natural crystal, which is a low-grade opal stone.

The other item referred to as “Opalite” is glass. Yep, glass. Absolutely synthetic.

Opalite, not even close to natural, and not even remotely related to opal

At least you might know what you’re getting into. I don’t blame anyone for buying opalite, it is gorgeous. I work with it, myself. I wear it sometimes. I make jewelry out of it. I am aware, however, of what it really is, and I know what to expect energetically from it.

What you can use opalite for honestly depends first and foremost on your own perspective on why minerals do what they do.

Most people I know using minerals in some sort of metaphysical way work under the principle that they somehow emit, transmit, or even magnify energy. This is seen specifically with crystalline minerals. Clear or rock crystal, in particular, is often cited as its a clear case of the metaphysical mimicking the physical. After all, crystals were used in the very first radios.

Now this is an old school radio

Then there’s the atomic theory. Everything, every single thing in this universe that we know if, is comprised of atoms. Atoms that are always moving. Always. Even in solid matter, they are constantly swimming around. Or flying. Depends on how you visualize it, I suppose. In this theory, the atoms are therefore bumping into anything they come in contact with. In the case of jewelry, your skin. The air. The desk. Anything an object touches will be touched by its atoms.

The effects of the atom theory, which is where I stand on minerals and their uses, makes it a very, very, very slow affect. Which is how I look at it. I don’t believe crystals are going to have an abrupt effect in most cases. There is one notable exception on my own part, but I’ll save that for later. It might make me change to the energy theory some day. Time will tell. Perhaps the truth is actually a blend of the two.

At any rate, opalite is even more interesting in the atomic theory because glass is not solid. Its a liquid. Which would imply that the atoms in glass are moving faster than the atoms in rocks. Hard to believe any of that, I know. If you’re lucky enough to live near some extremely old buildings (like ancient, even) you might be able to witness this yourself. Ancient windows will be thicker at the bottom as the glass molecules have slowly, imperceptibly slid down to the bottom, making the bottom of the window thicker than the glass at the top.

However, glass is, at the end of the day, non-conducive, rendering the energetic theory a little difficult to fit into any uses of opalite on a metaphysical level. It insulates, it doesn’t transmit.

As it is insulating, opalite can have at least a symbolic use for protection. Insulating the wearer from bad juju and negative vibes. If you work with color, depending on the hues of the opalite, it can be an extremely uplifting and happy object to work with as well. Like a cocoon of happiness.

Because I’m an absolute pendulum addict, my all-time favorite use of opalite has to be for pendulums. When you want an answer from yourself, there is nothing better. No other entity or spirit will be able to interfere. I highly recommend using opalite pendulum when you’re trying to talk to your inner child, your higher self, your subconscious, or your Will. When you need to know what you really think or want, an opalite pendulum is what you ought to reach for.

The Opalite Pendulum: Practical and alluring!

I have heard it said that every plant has its use. I find that to be true, in general, of every object on earth, whether natural or man made. Just because something isn’t natural is no reason to snub it. There’s also no reason to make up grandiose uses that have no real basis in reality just to sell a product. “Thanks, capitalism!” Keep your eyes open because in these studies there are as many people with serious intent as there are people looking to make a buck off of people with serious intent.

Everything on this planet, and likely everything in the universe, has its use. Whether man made or synthetic, it all has some sort of value to it. Not always metaphysical, for sure, but always useful in some way or other. In the case of opalite, it does happen to have some legitimate metaphysical uses, at least in my practice. I think like a witch, its just a different way of looking at what is around you, and making the most of it.

The Laws

Yes, there are laws in witchcraft. Not that “threefold” thing. That’s Wiccan, Wiccan only, and not even all of them. Some day I might even tackle how that happened, but this is not that day.

No, today I’m going to talk about those layers I mentioned. Y’know, layers. Like an onion.

Layering, much like onion, can give flavor and a little kick to your spellwork. It makes it yours, makes it unique, and covers more bases. Because as much as knowing what you want from it, and setting those intentions is absolutely necessary, layering just makes it that much better.

Unfortunately, because witchcraft, spellwork, and all kinds of magick in general, is largely self-taught, even the most practiced of practitioners will miss things in their studies. For instance, I’ve known many avowed Wiccans who had no idea who Aradia is supposed to have been, and never read about the roots of Wicca. Granted, it has changed a lot even just in my own lifetime, but it seems like now people just go straight to Llewellyn books or the latest Witchtok craze for their knowledge. Which is fine, you’ll make it, but if you want more, stay tuned.

The Laws I’m talking about here were first formulated only about a hundred years ago or so. I don’t remember who penned it first, but I came in contact with it through James Frazer’s The Golden Bough. Seems like this volume is out of vogue these days, and I can’t say I blame anyone for skipping it. But you’re missing some absolute gems. The Laws have been modified and added to over the years, so we’ve got a more comprehensive set of additional layers for our use.

I’m going to start here with one that’s likely the most obvious, and you’re probably more than adequately familiar with the concept. The Law of Similarity.

This is the basis for why most statues not only represent gods/goddesses, but are used as gods/goddesses in worship. Why symbols for peace represent peace. The color green is used for prosperity magic sometimes because, well, money is green, at least in the States. In a different time, prosperity magic would be represented by the color green because green is tied to healthy, fertile, living plants and a farmer’s prosperity was inevitably tied to the land and the fertility of it and his animals.

As this represents Mother Mary, She could actually be watching you, thanks to the Law of Similarity

A poppet looks like a person, so its used to represent a person. The more similar it is to the person, the more accurate the spell will find its intended target. This is why a picture or the date of birth or full name of the person is so useful when creating a poppet. Candles shaped like people, or like body parts, are similar to what you’re trying to enchant, so they represent that person or body part you’re trying to heal, curse, control, what-have-you.

So a thing becomes a thing. They are similar therefore you can substitute one for the other. Its just that simple. Laws don’t have to be complicated to work. When you know the laws though, and you know how to use them, they will only make your Work better.

Good Intentions in Witchcraft

My daughters are the sole reason I found myself with a TikTok account. I’ve been fairly burnt out on social media for a few years now, and going thru the depths of APD in general, making me uninterested (to say the least) in meeting new people or socializing much, either in person or online. But someone was being mean to Panda.

Mama Bear woke up to come out to “play.”

There are few things in this life that I have a lot of confidence in. My ability to verbally or literally defend (or offend) is one of them. I have a knack. A way of using words as a weapon. Most of the time I let things go, but every now and then I enjoy it, I’ll admit. I really enjoy verbal sparring when its in defense of a loved one.

By the time I’d set my account up, however, the drama had already subsided. When I took a look-see at the bully’s account, I realized that this particular person pretty much makes a habit of going off on people, and the furor dies down when she finds someone else to get mad with. Its a habit with that one. But as I was already there, I decided to take a look around. I’ve heard things, after all, about “witchtok,” that made me think I’d h ave a great laugh or ten.

Honestly, I did, and I still do. Sometimes I laugh with people and sometimes at them. It is what it is. But I’ve discovered a lot of creators who actually do know what they’re talking about. I’ve had to admit I’m at that place in my life where it gets hard to admit that people much, much younger actually don’t need my “guidance.” Its hard for older people to let go of being the “expert.” Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I still am, I have my strengths. But Millennials are all grown-up adults now, and I had to step back and realize that. They’re not children anymore, and I need to treat them like the adults they are, even when they don’t look old enough to drive.

Getting old sucks.

As a result of all this ticking and tocking, I am now slightly more up on what fads and phases are going on in the witchy/spooky/magical internet circles. This is where the whole “intentions” thing comes in.

Some would have you believe that “intentions,” are all you ever really need to get it done.

Don’t get me wrong, intentions are absolutely necessary. More than necessary, there is no point at all in doing witchcraft or spellwork or spirit work or what have you without intentions. That would imply you had no idea at all why you were doing it, so why would you? I wouldn’t.

And yes, you can go a really, really, really long way with Intentions. I’ve even accidentally caused things with focused intentions that weren’t, in my mind, serious. More of a fantasy, made of anger or irritation, which seemingly spontaneously exploded into reality. Honestly, I think this is why some religions will warn of not even thinking of sin, but that’s a different story.

So yes, intentions alone can work. Sometimes. If you’ve a very strong, developed will, and very little self-doubt, they’ll work better for you than for others for whom it will barely ever work.

If you’re serious about your craft, or art, you’ll want more than just intentions. This is where all those other things come in; chants, scents, plants, candles, colors, astrology, and all the other trappings of magic. Some people would have you believe they’re totally unnecessary. Depending on your point of view, they might only exist to make you feel and believe that the magic is working because its all coming from your own mind anyway. Fine. If that’s the way you want to think of it.

For me, however, each layer has more to contribute to the over-all work. When you combine more senses, and more layers to your Works, they will pack a lot more punch. Maybe you don’t always need a lot of layers. I don’t. But if you’re doing something serious, the more you can add, the better.

Never ignore your intentions, you’ll go nowhere without them. But don’t ignore the layers, either.