Tag Archives: witch

It’s Just Business?

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Can I tell you how much I detest that phrase? I’ve never had any use for it, and some of the worst people in my life have used that as an excuse for all sorts of horrid actions. It’s never been just business to me.

But then, I think I’ve vented about that before. I am me. I’ve worked very hard, and I’m still working very hard, to be me. I will not divide myself into bite-sized chunks for easy digestion. It just doesn’t work that way. My religion, witchcraft, crafts, arts, politics, humor, disabilities, and neuro-spiciness can’t be parsed out.

When I was searching my brain for a business name, for a brand, as they call it, I wanted something all-encompassing. Like this blog, it was going to be my home, so I needed to be comfortable in it, and feel it expressed all those facets of me-ness. I’ve had a few bad business names in my life, and I’ve seethed with jealousy at friends who just had the best, most creative, most interesting business names. No one seemed to be able to help me with that, though. I don’t know why but all those friends with brilliant business names weren’t able to help me come up with one for mine.

I was on my own.

The breakthrough came when I managed to get an email address with no numbers or extra letters for the name of one of my all-time favorite movies; “High Spirits.”

It’s an older movie, so I expect almost no one has seen it, and of the few who have, I suspect you might not remember it. Without exaggeration, this is one of the most accurate movies about Spirits I have ever seen.

Yes, it is a comedy. I mean, with Peter O’Toole and Steve Guttenberg I doubt there was any doubt in your minds about that. And still, a very realistic portrayal of Spirits. They are, for me at least, very much as they were in life. I don’t see them, so I don’t see the disintegration of the body so much as depicted in this movie, although I’ve hears some psychics who claim to see them this way. I have the feeling for the movie, it was more of a costume decision than an attempt at realism, though.

Obviously, that’s about all my business has in common with this movie. But it was definitely the inspiration. I could see that some would assume it was “high” as in certain recreational and medicinal substances “high,” but that wasn’t part of my inspiration for the business at the time. It is one of my me-ness facets, though, as I do use that substance medicinally as I have peripheral neuropathy. It’s one of the few substances I have found that actually works for nerve pain and is an excellent substitute for the prescription medicine that would otherwise be my only other choice.

Not that kind of “high spirits”!

There is a play on words here, though. Because in Spiritism I learned that praying for the Spirits enlightens them. A word play that absolutely works better in English. As a polytheistic Spiritist, as opposed to the normal Catholic flavor, I don’t necessarily see prayer as the connection here, but I do believe that communicating, working with them, and caring for them does “raise” them in a way. It’s not as much a matter of getting into heaven as it is improving the life of their incarnation present with me in this time frame but also gives them something of an edge on the other side. The details are still a bit unclear, but it’s what I’ve been hearing lately.

Naturally, the exact name of “High Spirits” was not available on Etsy. Which is fine. I don’t think I’d want it to be exact as then there could be potential conflict with the movie. As much as it is an inspiration for my business name, I did like the idea of setting myself apart. The obvious choice for me was to add “Divine.” More word play for the win!

Divine because for most of us, at least, the Spirits I am creating for are considered “Gods.” Whatever that is. 😉Gods are, no matter their characteristics, the definition of “Divine.” A word play needs two different meanings at least, so let’s throw on there that I also use divination to determine what to do for whom. Well, often I do at least. Sometimes it’s more of a known factor, and sometimes I have to whip out my pendulum and ask. I’m slowly becoming less dependent on the pendulum which is a big “YAY”. For a third part to this fun little word play, divine with a lower-case d, as in my designs are “divine.” Beautiful, or at least I like to think so.

There’s part of the Origin Story for High Spirits Divine Jewelry & Sundries 🙂. There’s more, of course, and I’ll get to it one of these days. In the meantime, I have some Dionysus products that I need to get out and some edits on Brigid I’m working on!

Honestly, these two are having a great time being difficult!

Do yourself a favor. If you haven’t watched High Spirits, give it a whirl. It’s on YouTube for free.

The Laws

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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.