#asian magic

[lottiearcana]

Spellwork Diary: I

Feb. 20, 2025

TLDR; Casted a siphoning spell on some people, reaping the benefits 🪭

Around dawn, I had trouble falling back asleep. Me—a young woman with ADHD—had the impulsive drive to cast a baneful spell on four people, whom of which, had done me wrong (I’m a witch, of course I’m petty✨ lol). I created and concealed a vampiric ward, gave it a hidden sigil—then its spirit or “form” it took, appeared before me attached to my stomach. I told it four names of four people.

First one, was a girl who bullied me and turned me into an outlet of her ego and anger. (It had been years since then, but she won’t leave me alone)

(I will not mention the other three since I do not know what their statuses currently are.)

That girl had always been obsessed with me the moment she laid eyes on me, and each time I ran into her I would get a spike in anxiety and vomit from the nausea her aura caused. Even my friend pointed out how she had negative energy surrounding her, it could be caused by either her toxic personality or her hatred and envy towards me. (Her aura was green—I’m not joking.)

(Note: A Green aura typically signifies healing, personal growth, harmony, and a strong connection to the heart chakra. However, it can also signify a jealous heart given the phrase “green-eyed monster”.)

I decided to use her as a test subject, I whispered to the ward what I wanted it to siphon out of her.

A few hours later, the ward had done wonders. I noticed my skin looked better—she used to make fun of my skin, given her “perfect” clear skin (Imho, her skin may be clear but it was dull. I know aging would not be too kind on her.). I had a good mood the entire day, even felt mentally stimulated by my surroundings.

I found out from a close friend my bully failed some sort of test. Three times. I couldn’t help but smile 🤭

You see, people like her have the biggest egos. Each achievement is tied to their self esteem and their self worth. The higher their self esteem and self worth are, the more annoying and daring they get.

I remember the saying “Ones who rise the highest, will fall down the hardest.”

Another thing, she’s developing a break out and her friends are teasing her for it. Honestly, it’s not that bad (yet). Besides, she’s rich. Of course she could have money solve it for her… Perhaps my ward wouldn’t siphon her wealth, right? 😌

But then again, she is nothing but a Peony to me while I am a “humble” Pine crane.

牡丹富贵松鹤长寿 (Peonies are wealthy, and pine cranes live long lives.)

I thanked my ward, cleansed it, and moved on to let it continue its work. Currently, my ward resides in my stomach since it feeds me what it siphons. Only I can see it. It’s quite ironic, my ward is the parasite and I am the host but it feeds me nutrients while I take it. Similar to a symbiotic relationship between animals. I do not want to “draw” nor show what my ward looks like, but, it kind of looks cute? Or maybe that’s how I feel since I made it. It seems to be happy working for me as it had done nothing but bring joy and wonders into my life.

I will continue to update my spell diary from now on, coming soon would be my love spells I casted. I’m quite excited to share it, actually. 😌🪭

If you would like to ask me “how did you create your ward”, I cannot tell you since this is a specific practice passed down onto me by an elder woman in my ancestral home (whom I channeled through divination).

But I do have a word of advice, you can create your own ward just with tarot cards or perhaps a paper and a pen as long as you visualize a ball of energy active in your stomach. (Note: Do not forget to conceal your energy/your spell. For each spell you cast, you leave an imprint which other witches or other spiritual people can sense and pick up.)

You do not need to let it reside in your stomach like I did, you may even give it its own form or perhaps a physical vessel like a potted plant or a plush toy. Or just leave it as it’s sigil or name. As long as you whisper it your intentions and feel your energy activate it, it will activate. You may even imagine what it looks like, it may even choose its own form and reveal itself to you—the possibilities are endless.

People fail to understand that spells do not have laws, rules, nor strict instructions. Witches were always meant to practice their craft with their personal, and individual freedom.

Rather, everything is energy and since everything is energy—you must have the understanding and the ability to manipulate energy. That is also how law of attraction and manifestation works. Manipulation of energy. Everyone’s “free will” abides to your own, this is your reality. It is quite stupid to question one’s freewill in spell work whilst ignoring their freewill in your manifestation. Everyone is YOU pushed out.

If you are a beginner witch or a baby witch struggling with spell work, frustrated in your progress and your work, i advise you to return to the basics; ENERGY WORK

Meditation and visualization can help you. But if you suffer from aphantasia, a pen and paper are your best friends.

That is all I am willing to teach you for today. I hope you have learned a thing or two from me. Until next time.

再见

[malachitelibrary]

East/SEA Asian Vocabulary & Concepts: Cultivation 101

In Asian spiritual practices, a single term can have many definitions and implications, with its exact meaning changing within different contexts. This isn’t because our ancestors sought to confuse us- instead it’s meant to reflect the interdependence and interrelations between many aspects of our lives. Each aspect of our lives is connected, and the power of connection is very, very important to…

[river-in-the-woods]

Hello Leigh! hope you're having a good one. I was reading your posts about cultivation and something sparked my interest: you were saying how most magical acts in asian traditions are mediated by Gods, Bodhisattvas and ancestral spirits, in general, calling on somebody with power and authority enough to Do The Thing for you, would that be right? if that's so, do you account for people's own magical abilities somehow? like the clair senses or their own ability to make things manifest? Taking a guess, I would assume it's tied to one's Qi and possibly some form of magic inheritance, but I don't see it discussed often. Is that a thing? how common is it?

Hello :) Hope you're having a good one too.

I can't remember in which post I talked about it, but it seems I did not explain very well! Let's give it another try.

The short answer is yes, you can do magic without other spirits. Because you have a spirit. And though you are oriented to the physical plane, which gives you an advantage on the physical and a disadvantage on the spiritual plane, you can still learn to do everything that spirits can do.

In other words, everyone does have their own capacity for doing magic, and that is tied to how developed a person's subtle body is. In Taoism they talk about qì, jīng, shén and meridians; in Buddhism they talk about the movement of prana through the chakras, or the channels, winds and drops. I'm just speaking broadly, because there are various systems that focus on different numbers of energy centres and channels, and I don't know the half of it tbh. But these are the things that give rise to what you know as clair senses.

The longer answer:

In East Asian traditions, performing magic requires mainly three things:

1) a well-developed subtle body, whether this is for channeling energy or for being possessed by gods in trance

2) a good relationship with the powers you favour, whether that be gods, buddhas or spirits

3) instruction and training by a human teacher, from an established tradition in or outside of your family

You can do magic through any one of these things, but it is not as effective/powerful and not considered 'professional'. If you haven't acquired spiritual authority and training from being part of a lineage, the gods and spirits may ignore your attempts to call on their power, or it simply wouldn't work because you have not received the blessing that gives you the ability to do so.

Without initiation, you would be doing what is considered laypeople's folk magic and cultivation. This has a more devotional approach, is done for general well-being, and does not involve commanding spirits or creating magical amulets and talismans.

There's a lot you can do even as a layperson that can have a real impact on your quality of life. Venerating one's gods and ancestors, attending seasonal festivals, practicing virtue, meditation and breath work. There are also folk magic methods that rely on the virtues of plants, minerals, etc, that are informed by traditional medicine and fēnɡshuǐ.

For lay Mahayana Buddhists there are plenty of sacred mantras and scriptures. The 6 syllable mantra, Golden Light Sutra, Heart Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Great Compassion Dharani, Kṣitigarbha Dharani, Ten Small Mantras, White Robe Guan Yin Mantra, etc... These are popular ones.

Lay Daoists can recite Bǎogào (寶誥) for various deities, as well as the Eight Great Incantations (八大神咒). There are plenty of spells and invocations for protection and purification, which I will not list here. And of course there's studying the Dàodéjīng.

To the Western view, these are all very magical things even for a layperson, and indeed they are. But to us, it is not a separation of magic vs mundane (because there is no separation) rather it's professional magic vs lay magic. This is the defining aspect of being a magician or shaman-priest in East Asia; it's a profession and a societal role like doctor, scientist, musician, writer.

Not sure about other languages, but magic in Chinese is 法, literally 'method'. A Daoist magician is called a 方士, 'method master' – they would be expected (in antiquity, at least) to study not just occult methods but also chemistry, medicine, science, politics, astrology and astronomy.

So this is really the main point of my answer. It's not gods-power vs personal-power, because the reality of both these things is included in our spiritual philosophy. I don't believe there are any traditions of Asian magic that do not involve the concept of spirits both within and without us 😅 this idea of secular magic doesn't really exist outside of the West, as far as I know.

I hope that makes sense. I rewrote this post many times trying to figure out the best way to answer 😆

[the-eastern-witch]

Opening of our magic ritual

[my-slytherclaw-aesthetic]

☽ Asian magic ✧

There isn’t enough representation in magic, so I’m going to start doing POC aesthetics!

[theoryofmagick]

Hey, I’m Chinese and I know a lot of the resources you have are of the western kind (Scandinavian). I was wondering if there are resources for asian magic?

Hello hello! So the majority of my Chinese craft comes from my mom/family, in the form of what Westerners call spirit work, divination, and herbalism, if only because that’s what my family/cultural region mostly does or knows about (Han Chinese from the Southeast/city). The best resource for Chinese and East Asian magic is to find your nearest Chinese ancestor, ideally one who’s grown up on the Mainland, in Hong Kong, or Taiwan, and grill them over tea and biscuits about everything, everything, everything they know. If you don’t have a handy grandma or parent, here’s some ideas for getting started (keep in mind this is very broad and only skimming the surface on where to start):

- Divination: We’re biiiig on divination. If you’re into that, the easiest Chinese method accessible in the Western world is to learn the I Ching. It was originally meant to be read in the palace to determine broad scale subjects, so you may be getting some generalized ancestral answers. There are also a TON of regional divination methods - I can’t remember what it’s called in English, but in my grandma’s town there was a thing where an old lady made a canary pick out your fortune on a bamboo stick, which was the widely accepted “pop” fortune method out in the nearby-Shanghai area. Your specific area of origin will have a fortune-telling method specific to it, as well.

- The Elements: Unlike in Western magic, we’ve got five of them. Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Metal. Get to know these guys because the whole fundamentals change when you consider the components on a five-point shift.

- Ghosts Ghosts Ghosts: You probably know by now that Chinese magic is hugely dominated by ancestor and spirit work, pretty much the “fundamentals” of Chinese spirituality. This is probably why I recommend finding your nearest grandmother. You probably have a place where your ancestors lay, and it’s culturally important to bring them the right presents and offerings. Generally you’ll want to figure out what your family’s ancestor sitch is, where they are, and make nice with them. Your family probably also has a religious or semi-religious tradition in place for honoring your ancestors, but if not (or for my Asian Americans out there): Rule of thumb, you gotta burn it so it gets up to Heaven (Tian). The releasing of the matter into the air as smoke and ash releases it into the ancestor’s plane, much like the fundamentals of many Western and Eastern magical theory. Ancestors like receiving gifts they liked in life, like a special pastry or cigarettes. Paper money (folded money facsimiles) is also burned, because, and I’ve never figured this one out, ancestors need money in Heaven to spend. If you’ve never been to pay respect to your ancestors, spend a day finding burnables of things they liked fold some facsimiles or money, and buy or use the incense sticks (which are joss sticks) provided at the crematory/graveyard (not sure what the word is here, the place with all the urns and your ancestors in shelves and stuff outdoors. Chinese Outdoor Cremation Graveyard? Ahem.) Once you’ve made nice with incense and offerings, you’ll be doing the most important work in Chinese spirituality, and have your whole line of ancestors having your back. You may also like to have an ancestor shelf in your house if you can’t access their resting place. 

- Energy Work: Both tai chi and kung fu utilize the same methods to find, center, and move your chi, which Westerners refer to as energy work. Find some old ladies practicing Tai Chi in a park, probably near Chinatown, or see if your local gym or YMCA has classes. It’s a great way to keep connected with your energy and learn to move it as if it’s second nature, and I consider this one of the fundamentals. Most folks growing up in China don’t even realize this is energy work, as it’s so common (think “yoga in the park”).

- Superstitions: I say “superstitions” like I mean “unreasonable facts”. Ghosts can’t walk in a straight line. Dragons and monsters hate noise and the color red. Hang your Fook sign upside down This is kind of a nebulous category, but you’ll find many Chinese cultural beliefs fall neatly into your correspondences and rulesets.

- Festivals: All Chinese festivals use the Lunar calendar. Get in the swing of treating Chinese New Year like the rebirth of your year, and participate in things like the New Year and the Midsummer Festival. Do all the prerequisite traditions per holiday like eat mooncakes, light firecrackers, set out a candy box, give out lai see, etc etc. This’ll help you get attuned to the Lunar year cycle, which, you’ll handily find, is the basis for almost every magical calendar in the East and West.

- Herbalism: TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, is pretty much herb healing. It’s some weird intense shit though, and works best in conjunction (def not in place of) Western medicine. If you can, find a TCM practitioner in your town and ask for a check-up. They’ll give you a full body scan and recommend which herbs and traditional materials work best with your personal physiology, and you’ll also learn some basics about how to fend off a cold, make a soothing poultice, etc. You might have to dig a little hard to find one of these guys if you’re outside Asia. If you’re not ready to have an old due tell you to smear root paste on your spine, start with something lighter: Tea is an age old tradition, and while not considered strictly magic, there’s a special set of ceremonies and correspondences that teach basic elements of respect and ritual that you can look up.

- Astrology: If you were born in Asia and your parents were Hella Chinese ™, chances are, you got a birth chart done by an astrologer. My mom’s essentially the WASP of Chinese Moms and she still got my date of birth checked out by an astrologer. See if you can find any clues about your lineage by asking your parents if they picked your date of birth for a special reason.

- Court Magicians: There’s a WEALTH of info here, even though a lot of it was destroyed or moved during colonialism, WWII, and the Cultural Revolution. Court Magicians were in the employ of the emperor for a whooooole lotta dynasties, and you’re gonna have to learn Mandarin and read a scroll top-down-right-to-left, but a lot of it is recorded by well-meaning British Empire scavengers who have no idea what it is they have on their hands. Look at old calligraphy, and examine the dynasties to get a handle on the evolution of what was considered the basics. Some of the dynasties overlap with trade in the Middle East and Europe, and this is when the juiciest stuff gets written.

Apologies if this is all stuff you’ve heard before! I don’t have any reading materials, unfortunately, as all this is from growing up in Hong Kong before moving to Singapore & my mom/grandma/heritage. I’m super happy to answer any more questions, or talk more about it, or offer more resources - I just don’t wanna step on any toes if you’ve got a parent or auntie waiting in the wings to tell you all about Chinese culture! If not, hit me up anytime, and I’ll blast you with facts!

Note: I speak Cantonese, not Mandarin, so some of the phonetic translations are, uh, very Cantonese. For my English speakers, that’s like me typing stuff out with a heavy phonetic Valley Girl accent and I am very sorry.

[callipygiancacomixtle]

[Image Description: A stick of incense burns. It's sticking off a table covered in rustic pans and logs, with a white-and-blue patterned tablecloth. In the background are blurry green trees.]

[river-in-the-woods]

Guan yin story is fascinating. The story she was giving thousand hand and eleven head by amitabha buddha, her tears who the bodhisattva tara born from

Indeed, Guanyin's story is one I find especially poetic. Guanyin / Avalokitesvara is known as the Lord of the World. They have many emanations (forms of the deity with different functional roles) and they seem to be involved in just about everything.

Actually, if you get into Vajrayana (the esoteric, initiatory branch of Buddhism) you encounter a distinctly hilarious problem of wanting to do spiritual networking and get to know new gods, only to find out many of them are just Guanyin in a different guise.

Tara is not considered to be one of Guanyin’s emanations (at least in my tradition). Tara is a bodhisattva in the story where she was born as a princess in another universe, who famously vowed to always be reborn as a feminine being to spite the idea that femininity is somehow a barrier to enlightenment. However in Vajrayana, Tara is considered to be a Buddha, because she fulfilled her vows as a bodhisattva.

As I was saying, Guanyin’s presence is ubiquitous in the Asian sphere. Even Taoist deities sometimes trace their origin story back to Guanyin, Sun Wukong being the most famous example.

One of my favourite Taoist folk goddesses, Lady Línshuǐ 臨水夫人 was initially born as a human named Chén Jìnggū 陈靖姑. She inherited spiritual gifts from birth because her mother accidentally consumed the blood of Guanyin.

This is my opinion, but Guanyin is exceptionally cunning (in a great way). People overlook most of Guanyin’s qualities in favour of their role as a motherly saviour – which attracts followers of all backgrounds – because compassion is a universal need. But if you look a little closer, you may realise that Guanyin is one of the most powerful magician-goddesses out there.