~/bin/netcat -tumblog +WarshsSX

I wonder what those command line arguments mean.

[purring-netcat]

On Greater Awareness

It’s important, as with all things, that awareness is not something you get quickly.

Big steps may be taken, on your own or with the help of others, and while things will never be the same - I still remember my own “awakening” - you must work to upkeep and exercise these skills or they will fade. Look around yourself. Don’t poke intrusively, but just look at the sort of effect people around you give off. Practice viewing a lot of people at once, practice all of your specialties. It’s easy to get caught up in doing your best to keep yourself alive, and thus forget the little things; But it’s the practice and the exercise that will help you out when you need it the very most.

[purring-netcat]

Been gone for a long time. Time to be back.

Now’s a good time to ask questions, as well.

[purring-netcat]

No matter what you discover about yourself, it’ll be okay. You can always be better. The you that tries to be better is already better than the you that does not.

[purring-netcat]

It’s been a lo~ng time.

 But here I am again, and I guess I should start writing whenever I can.

[novub]

shout out to people with abusive mothers who have to deal with the world acting like every single mother’s love is so expansive and unconditional and tender when that is the opposite of what we experienced

[purring-netcat]

Think hard about your capabilities before you engage in anything remotely combative. Sure, maybe you work a mean ritual. Maybe your magic circles or cauldron spells or chants or your constructs are incredibly powerful. But your enemies will, as a rule, find you when your circle is far away; Your cauldron is cooled and on the shelf, or has barely begun to warm; Your throat is too dry to chant; Your constructs are out of energy. In these moments, you will learn whether or not you, yourself, are strong enough to fight.

It’s like being a soldier. No matter how smart, damaging, or accurate your weapon is... It’s all useless at point blank range when you’re grappled. Make sure you didn’t miss hitting the gym or your knife practice.

[purring-netcat]

The grave wardens are watching over that place. You know, the one where you are considering stealing grave dirt from.

Watching. Minding the graves.. And they will remember your trespass.

[purring-netcat]

Something seem too good to be true? Someone offering you all the magic and power you could dream of, for a light price?

Run. It’s a trap. It’s always a trap. It is one hundred percent a trap. Even if you don’t see how.

[purring-netcat]

A lot of people have a lot of questions they want to ask but are scared of sounding foolish.

Ask anyway. Ask to keep it private, if you want. However you wish, if there’s knowledge I can give you, then ask.

[purring-netcat]

“I am on errantry, and I greet you.”

So long ago, yet so influential to my career in what I’d call “magic” at first.

Don’t let yourself forget where you came from. Not something so circumstantial as a physical place, but what’s really important: What caught your eye before you even knew that the stories were true.

[purring-netcat]

Things are much more complicated than I thought, with tarot - the cards themselves are only so much wood pulp and ink. It’s not them doing the work, it’s not them doing the reading. They’re just a... focus.

[purring-netcat]

On Reagent Safety

Magical as their uses may be to you, nearly every plant on earth that you have access to has very well documented materials safety data available. Do your research, don’t smoke herbs you don’t look up first, stop pretending that literal assassin’s poison plants are perfectly safe to use, and remember that your body works on chemistry, and no amount of magic will save you from carbon monoxide poisoning.

[purring-netcat]

On Remedials

Go back to your stuff from time to time. Your oldest notes. Review your preconceptions. Examine them. Check them for flaws, see which have remained strong and deserve polishing.

It’s your craft. It was back then, and it will be in the future. But that means it’s your job to keep your tradition clean and oiled and respected.

[purring-netcat]

Just a quick reminder that no matter what you like to listen to, there is no music that disqualifies you from being a ‘real witch’ or ‘real caster’

I mean this goes for clothes, accessories, hobbies, etc, too, but music is what I thought of

[purring-netcat]

On walks in the park

It’s me, back again, back again! I’m here just for a moment, my friends, to relay a lesson.

Take it from me, dear reader. this lesson was hard learned.

Say you’re out walking, and you’re in a new sort of park, or area. If you get a funny feeling from an archway or other easily defined gateway that you can walk around.... walk around it.

I recently visited a lovely set of gardens, that tore the absolute shit out of my shielding and armor when I walked through a doorway that had turned out to be warded. How did it get there? Who knows? Maybe someone on staff? Maybe the original builder of the gardens brought Something more than just a love of landscaping with them from their distant country? In any case, I’ll be extra careful from now on.

No more walking through 90 year old wards for this girl.

But I’ll definitely go back to visit that water spirit. She was quite nice.

[becausebirds]

A perfect duet.

[purring-netcat]

On Area Clearances

Hello. It’s been a while since I’ve posted! Welcome back, have a cup of tea.

All right, let’s begin.

Negatively charged areas can deal a severe amount of damage to your psyche, attunement, and general well-being over time, making them important to clear out, not just in a quick manner, but in one that will hopefully last, and be executed safely.

Every practitioner clears areas differently, and as I am, I do it by force and fire and energy channeling. So let’s talk about some common themes that everyone can work with.

Identification. It’s important to survey the area, and see how far the negative zone extends. You need to know how far and how severe it is, in as much of an area as possible. If it gets a lot worse around a certain place or object, it’s going to need special attention.

Positioning. Plan and execute your cleansing spells, rituals, or discipline uses from outside of the negative zone. This will help you maintain a clear head, and, more importantly, stop the negative zone from either forming a hypercompressed ring because you pushed out from the center, or from rebounding back in and smushing you in a plie of blergh (those are technical terms, I swear I am a professional). Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking you can obviously overpower anything that might smoosh you.

Execution. Depending on if you neutralize the negativity or just push it away, start from an edge, preferably a high-traffic one, and work your way inward. If you’re doing a mass spell, try to make sure the cleaning starts from the tips and moves towards the center. If you’re the type to just blow it away and let someone else deal with it, well, try bisecting it and blowing it in different directions, so someone downwind doesn’t get the whole thing right in the kisser.

Followup. This is what I hear being most neglected. You can’t just leave a low-pressure zone and expect nothing weird to happen. You should attempt to fill the zone back to neutral with stored energy, or ward or consecrate it further so it doesn’t just fill back up like a drained pond. However you wind up doing it, check back in on the zone several times over the next week or so to make sure things are still cool.

Special Circumstances. Sometimes it’s not just a lot of bad days building up a charge in an area, but something or somebody spewing out the charge deliberately, or close enough. In this case, you’ll have to make your own decisions, but however you proceed, remember to cast straight, stay calm and never make a deal with an Outsider.

See you next time.