Anonymous sent: Have you read the Witch Eyes trilogy by Scott Tracey? If so, what are your feelings about it?

I have, and I loved it.  It was really very fun.  It’s not anything I could use for geekomancy, but I liked it nonetheless!

Anonymous sent: I’ve seen the term “wild magic” tossed around in fiction and I was wondering if the concept of it existed and if it can be utilized in real life?

I’m honestly not sure how to answer this question.

Have I experienced magic in the wild, aka not in human crafting?  Yep.

Can it be utilized, aka, can magic from the wild be called upon to do its own thing when we need it?  Yep.

Can “Wild Magic™” from a particular fiction trope which is unnamed but anon hopes is universally understood be called upon in some fashion via geekomancy?

I don’t know which trope you mean, so I’m not sure.

Anonymous sent: What is the 13th arte for a wizard? Would it be something along the lines of their ability to create magical paradigms?

You know, I’m not entirely sure.  I would say it’s tempting to say that wizards have a knack at figuring out a magical model that functions universally and effectively, like astrology or Taoism or Qabala… but I just don’t have enough of my own skill at wizardry to properly identify it.  It makes sense, though.

From what I can tell, a magician’s Thirteenth Arte is something that originally starts out helping them do magic at all, and then grows into something that only their magical type can do, and then grows into something that only they themselves can do.  Like, a sorcerer starts by choosing and committing to a magical worldview, and they craft something, like a magic circle or a weapon or something, which represents that view.  That allows them to associate to their paradigm more closely, which lets them learn and master greater magicks, and then eventually that item or circle or magic feather or whatever becomes an artifact of potency which helps them learn to wield a particular kind of magic that nobody else out there can wield in precisely that manner, even other sorcerers.

Likewise, witches reach out to power with their spirits, which begins unlocking their abilities to do magic at all, and eventually that power to fare their spirit forth from their body allows them to do magic that only other witches can do, with it evolving into the creation of unique bonds with the world which lets them do specific kinds of magic nobody else can do as well.

So I dunno, I would assume the wizards (like every other magic user) would follow the pattern, it seems to be a natural progression for human beings in their skill development in general.

somegryphon sent: I have two questions that I'd like to ask, one is can I have a link to the circle of salt discord? I think I saw on the blog to message you. The second is if you have listed somewhere your definitons of witchcraft, sorcery, etc. I feel I've seen it before but I'm not finding it.

Here’s a brief description of the different kinds of magicians!  I always keep it in my Grimoire since people have been asking about it lately.

As for the Discord server, I can get you a link if you send me a message rather than an ask.  I have to use more immediate communication methods since the damn things expire so quickly and people don’t seem to click them soon enough.

mirron91 sent: So where does spirit working fall under the six categories? Just curious as you didn’t reference it under one of them but the others you did. My guess would be the Priesty one but just curious.

That is correct!  ;)

hellboundwitch:

And now for a rant that’s been a long time coming…

If I make a post and someone reblogs it, their tags are not my business.

People’s tags belong to them. And they may see something different than what the OP put there. They may use them for something different than the OP may have envisioned. They may have a pre-existing tag filing system that helps them keep certain posts together because tags are supposed to help people find the content they’re looking for.

I don’t get to control what other people tag things as, especially in a reblog. When people post things to a community tag that has a pre-existing purpose, that’s annoying, but as I once said on this very blog, we don’t actually own those tags, so, oh well. 

But in a reblog? Reblogged tags don’t show up in tag results. Reblog tags are irrelevant to everyone but the reblogger and the people using that person’s blog.

And none of us get to control what tags someone uses! It’s honestly kind of weird to even try!! 

If someone wants to reblog one of my oracle card posts with a ‘tarot’ tag, because that’s the tag THEY use to find posts on THEIR BLOG, I’ll fucking live! If I tag a post about paganism with ‘noomles and tomaymas’ that’s my business! 

And note, if someone is tagging something actively harmful to you (eg slurs) or something on reblogs of your posts, that’s clearly a bigger issue than just an individual’s tag choice and is not the kind of thing I’m talking about here. 

Feel free to reblog this post with whatever tags you like :’)))

Anonymous sent: I started making a magic language for my practice with the programm polyglot and grammar wise i have prefixes and suffixes that determine, for examle that something is increasing or decreasing(f.e. for spellwork decreasing stress). There is even a word for the start and the end of a spell (the translations for these i jokingly called </ and >) which brings me to my question: is this still witchery anymore or have i dabbled in sorcery with this? Thank you for your time whether you answer or not

Well, inherently the use of a magical language is not by itself sorcery or witchcraft, and designing such a system is more wizardly than anything else.  That being said, what you do with it from there may move it into a few different categories.

- If you use the language to communicate directly with the spirits of things, it becomes something witchy (if the words are compulsive) or spirit-workery (if the words are conversational and designed around negotiation/communication), what rude people might call “shamanic” because they haven’t created their own damn word;
- If you use the language as a sort of coding language by which you can create spells just as things to say, it’s more wizardly if it’s used as “the true language” or is more of a narrative kind of thing;
- If the language is “words of power,” aka words which have powers associated to them (think the name-words of the runes) or are binding to spirits or forces just by speaking them, it’s sorcerous.

So, it could be all of the above depending on how you use it!

Hope that helps!  :)

tainbo:

What Native people say about the use of sage: you can use sage, but you cannot smudge as nothing you are doing (waving sage around) is actually smudging. Smudging is a ceremony and you are, we promise, not smudging. Please buy sage from either us, or someone who sources the sage from us. White sage may not be considered endangered by the US government but corperate sourcing is making it difficult for us to source sage for our own religious purposes. Let alone to sell it.

What white people hear: never use sage ever, don’t ever buy it, don’t own it, don’t even look at it.

Look, y’all. There’s a couple of facets to my talk today.

1) Yes! You can buy sage! You really, truly can! Buy it from either native sellers (go to a powwow! Eat our food, buy our stuff, watch some dancing!) Or buy it from a seller who sources the sage from native people. Pick one. And no, buying it from 5 Below doesn’t count.

2) you CANNOT smudge. This isn’t just you “shouldn’t”— this is a YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF SMUDGING. Waving a sage stick around your doorways IS NOT SMUDGING. It is smoke clensing. Smudging, depending on the tradition and tribe, could easily have dancing and drums involved. You, as a white person, do not have the cultural BACKGROUND to even know how it works. At all. Period.

3) please, for FUCKS SAKE, stop making posts here on tumblr where you tell other white people about cultural appropriation and what they can and cannot do. Please stop, your license has been revoked because none of you bother to get the facts right. We native people are FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING IT OURSELVES. Consider instead: a) reblogging our posts where we talk about it! We’re here! We have made posts!! b) Making a post that states what we said and then LINKS BACK TO US. Screenshot with a link if you must. Stop centering your own voices in these conversations. You are already centered in everything, stop centering yourselves in a native space.

I’m tired of this nonsense, y’all.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk ™

*eyeroll*

Well done, Tumblr, on that whole “eliminating porn blogs” thing.  I just got followed by four new porn bots, but my long-time friend on Tumblr who occasionally posted tasteful partially nude men had to delete his blog.

So, I got Diablo III for my Nintendo Switch!  Anyone wanna exchange info and play together?