i'll refer to my practice as pop culture paganism on this blog - out of convenience. i believe that the three fictional entities i'm working with are all facets of the same being, and as such i call them its masks. think of them as distinct energies that also make a whole; and prefer to show themselves as the following entities.
┊ the spiral dread power from the magnus archives
┊ aha aeon from honkai star rail
┊ the smiling god deity from welcome to desert bluffs
i am first and foremost an avatar of the spiral, i've worked with es mentiras for much longer - but i look forward to using this blog as a devotional space and a way to get closer to THEM and Him.
likewise, i'd love to make friends from this little corner of tumblr, so don't hesitate to reach out!
all of my posts can be found here!
tags ᝰ.ᐟ
# backstage? ࿔ personal
# fool's intermission ࿔ asks
# the stage is set! ࿔ resources such as blinkies, userboxes, flags, etc.
# from the corridors ࿔ about the spiral
# enter - an origami bird ࿔ about the followers of the spiral. the distortion, the worker in clay, etc.
# from the tavern ࿔ about the elation
# enter - a clownfish ࿔ about the followers of aha. masked fools etc.
# from the desert ࿔ about the smiling god
# enter - a centipede ࿔ about the followers of the smiling god. kevin, lauren, etc.
❦ Intent Is Not Everything: The Architecture of a Spell
You don’t build a fire by yelling “burn.” (or maybe you do?)
So let’s talk about why some spells flop. It's not because your desire was weak. Not because the moon was in the wrong position. But because you built a magical toaster and forgot to plug it in.
You can have a brilliant, spicy spark of intent, but if it has nowhere to go? No structure to hold it, no current to carry it, no ritual act to release it? That energy just... sits there. Fog in your chest. Static in your bones. Sometimes it loops. Sometimes it leaks. Sometimes it just becomes ✧vibe soup.✧
This isn’t about perfection. Or control. Or doing it “right.” It’s about structure and the subtle architecture that lets magic move.
Let’s break it down.
⚙︎ The Functional Parts of a Spell
⚘ 1. INTENT — The Internal Spark
This is the raw juice. The emotional voltage. The psychic heat. It’s not just what you want, it’s what you’re willing to make room for. Not a wish. A directive.
Intent is clearest when it’s emotionally honest and not trying to control everything like a micro-managing Virgo sun.
Bad intent ≠ evil intent. It usually just means the signal is fuzzy, performative, or split. You say “I want clarity,” but your gut is screaming “abandon ship.” That’s a short circuit.
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Functional EEG studies show intent activates motor planning centers before action begins (Libet, 1985). Translation: the brain literally starts prepping for action the moment will is engaged. Magic agrees.
Ask: What am I actually calling for? Not with my mouth, but with my will?
➴ 2. FOCUS — The Conscious Thread
Focus is what holds the circuit together. Lose it, and your spell turns into an energetic sneeze.
It’s not just about “concentrating.” It’s about staying present enough that the energy doesn’t leak out your ears. Focus is somatic. Breath. Trance. Motion. The ritual nervous system.
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Sustained attention boosts neural connectivity (Posner & Rothbart, 2007). Theta waves (4–8 Hz), accessed in trance or deep meditation, = peak spellcasting state. High suggestibility, low inner critic, good vibes.
Ask: Can I stay with the energy long enough to deliver it?
⚒︎ 3. ACTION — The Ritual Anchor
Action is what makes the spell real. It’s not a metaphor. It’s a physical interface.
Whether it’s lighting a candle, chanting, drawing sigils, or screaming into a jar. A ritual action anchors intent in time and space.
The body becomes the spell’s delivery system. It’s not just theater, it’s sensorial confirmation that “something has changed.”
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Embodied cognition says movement affects belief. Intentional gestures create somatic markers (Wilson, 2002). You literally move your body into belief.
Ask: What is my body doing to tell the world this spell is happening?
❀ 4. CORRESPONDENCE — Symbolic Resonance
This is how your spell speaks the universe’s language.
Correspondences (herbs, colors, crystals, numbers) aren’t just ✧aesthetic choices✧. They are the semantic tags of the ritual world.
But they’re not universal. What’s “attraction” in one system might be “banishing” in another. Magic is contextual. Meaning is coded.
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Lakoff & Johnson (1980) argue that cognition is metaphor-driven. When you use red for desire, you’re engaging neural circuits that associate red with heat, passion, and activation.
Ask: Do my symbols clarify the spell, or confuse it?
⌛︎ 5. TIMING — The Temporal Current
Spells don’t exist in a vacuum. They drop into a world that’s already moving.
Timing can mean:
Moon phases
Planetary hours
Your own emotional weather
Ancestor holidays
“This just feels right”
Right spell, wrong time? It fizzles. Or misfires. Or just ghosts you completely.
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Chronobiology says our bodies respond to time cycles (Refinetti, 2006). Mood, immunity, cognition—they’re all tide-sensitive. Why wouldn’t magic be?
Ask: What larger rhythm is this spell stepping into?
❂ 6. MEDIUM — The Elemental Channel
Magic needs a conduit. An element. A field. A medium to move through.
Is it fire? Smoke? Water? Ink? Your body? A blog post? A bone? A USB drive?
Medium decides how the energy moves, and where it lands. Wrong medium = muffled signal. It’s like trying to cast a glamour using baking soda.
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Energy always moves through something. Different materials conduct energy differently. Even placebo effects rely on the “medium” of meaning and context (Benedetti, 2012).
Ask: Where is this spell going? And can the medium carry it?
🜸 7. RELEASE — The Letting Go
No spell works if you cling to it like it’s your ex. You have to let it go.
Release is the exit point. The click. The exhale. The hand off the steering wheel. Without release, the spell loops. It stalls. It paces in your aura like a ghost waiting to be dismissed.
⚛︎ Scientific thread: Polyvagal theory says we need closure to reset our nervous system (Porges, 2011). The same might apply to magic: unresolved intention = energetic static.
Ask: Have I released this? Or am I still haunting it?
The Spell as a Functional Circuit
Visualize it like this:
If any part of the circuit is broken, the spell may misfire, stall, or just sit in your chest like ghost soup.
This is basically the magical version of a pre-flight safety check.
Magic Is Not Wishful Thinking. It’s Systemic.
A spell is not a vibe. It’s not ✧aesthetic ✧. It’s not a Pinterest board with herbs.
It is a functional symbolic system designed to influence reality. Neurologically, emotionally, energetically, maybe even physically.
It works when it’s built to move energy. When the circuit is whole. When the fire has a place to go.
A spell isn’t just a spark in the dark.
It’s the structure that carries that spark into the world. And lets it burn clean.
Part Ⅱ of Occult Mechanics 𝟷𝟶𝟷
✍︎ Further Reading & Sources
✧ Magic & Culture
Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough (Sympathetic and contagious magic)
Tambiah, Stanley. The Magical Power of Words
Betz, Hans D. (ed). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation
✧ Science of Mind & Body
Porges, Stephen. The Polyvagal Theory
Libet, Benjamin. “Unconscious Cerebral Initiative and the Role of Conscious Will.”
Wilson, M. (2002). "Six Views of Embodied Cognition." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
Benedetti, F. Placebo Effects: Understanding the Mechanisms
Hello! I wanted to ask how you decide what to say and do for worship, since there's little to no established practice. I've been thinking of getting into something similar myself and wanted advice -🌇
hi! i apologise for only replying to your ask now, dear anon; one more ridiculously busy week is finally over, though, and i've been rambling as always!
as for your ask, well, i’m sure most of us ask ourselves similar questions every once in a while. at least i know i absolutely cannot figure out what to say and do sometimes. i am not particularly good at discussing these things with other practitioners – you couldn’t pay me to use discord servers, for a start, and even then it’s true that there aren’t many of us to begin with – so most of my practice i have to figure out for myself too.
i guess it’s a combination of many, many things that has been shaping and reshaping my practice. i always rely heavily on the source material, but in most cases i also let my intuition and the time i spend with each of my patron’s faces have the final word. sometimes i also am lucky enough to stumble upon some interesting posts in the pop culture paganism tags, or i take inspiration from the many other faiths and practices that people share resources for online.. or i just improvise, too!
i think i can assume safely enough that you are asking specifically about a smiling god, ahah? why when i first started to associate part of my journey with a smiling god, i went through everything again – episodes, novels and especially It Devours!, anything that had His name attached to it. with that i was able to understand what i was working with better, to paint a clearer picture of Him and His correspondences. then i started to interact with Him based on all of that, to see what did feel right and what didn’t work all that much in the end. i’d say pretty much every spiritual journey ever is all about trial and error! with a smiling god it is always particularly true when it comes to untangling strexcorp nonsense from the entity that took His name in my practice, since the two are very different to me.
– well, that being said, those of us pop culture pagans whose journey is better explained by the belief in egregores might have a slightly different answer from mine. because i don’t see a smiling god as a being that’s entirely born from His fictional counterpart’s popularity, or from someone’s faith in Him, i may not always feel as attached to said fictional counterpart as other practitioners. my goal is, well, to get to know and understand the version of Him i’ve been lucky to meet, rather than to participate in an egregore’s creation! though both are, of course, valid paths to take. –
either way, though, i’ll try to be a little less vague and a little more succinct! my advice would probably go like this:
make yourself a list of things that are canonically associated with the entity you’d like to work with – items, events, concepts, words, etc etc – as well as, if it doesn’t seem to be enough, things that are associated with similar entities.
– for a smiling god, for instance, i think it makes sense for specific symbols like the sun, teeth, centipedes, deserts and so on to still be connected to Him. i actually have a post listing everything i do personally associate with a smiling god here!
try things out and see what brings you results, what feels right, what in short you’d like to keep in your personal practice. this can mean picking different kinds of offerings, asking for their help during specific types of spells, paying attention to what kind of everyday activities they like to tag along for... don't feel like you have to keep everything! if part of the source material doesn't speak to you, then it doesn't speak to you.
perhaps most importantly, don’t hesitate to ask for guidance too! i like to use tarot cards and dice to communicate with entities, but any other form of divination as well as things like dreams and signs can work.
– the timing feels too perfect not to mention, as an example, that i’ve found a solitary wasp’s nest in my windowsill today, and that i already had a wasp friend living nearby in my previous apartment. wasps just make sense to me when it comes to Him and desert bluffs in general, i already have a dead one preserved on my altar, and coincidence or not i will definitely be taking this as a sign to keep them closer to my practice! as for how, well i'll be a good neighbor and leave a little snack for her from time to time, but it's also a good source of inspiration for devotional art and whatnot!
i do hope this is the sort of advice you had in mind anon! if not please don't hesitate to reach out again, especially since i'm always glad to see i'm not the only one working with my patrons! :) i have been a little less active lately, but i'd love to share some more resources in the near future as well. until then, i wish you all the best.
Understanding Deity Work vs. Deity Worship and Addressing Common Fears
Over the years of practicing witchcraft, many have come to me with questions and concerns about deity work and/or deity worship. It's completely natural to feel apprehensive, especially when starting something new. In this post I will get into the differences and address common fears to help you feel more confident in your practice!
Remember, working with or worshiping deities is a deeply personal journey. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Trust your intuition, be respectful, and allow yourself the freedom to explore and grow. Deities are here to guide and support us, not to instill fear.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or share your experiences! We’re all here to learn and support each other on this spiritual path! Blessed be 🤍✨🕯️
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Deity Work:
Deity work is more about forming a personal relationship or partnership with a deity. It can be less formal and more focused on mutual growth and learning. The aim is to collaborate with the deity for personal development, spiritual growth, or specific goals. Some common practices include:
meditation
journaling
divination
dreamwork
personalized offerings based on your interactions with the deity
Deity Worship:
Deity worship involves honoring and venerating a deity through rituals, offerings, prayers, and other acts of devotion. It's a more traditional and structured approach. The goal is to show respect, gratitude, and seek blessings or guidance from the deity. Common practices include:
creating altars
offering food, flowers, incense, etc.
reciting prayers
participating in festivals or holy days
Addressing Common Fears:
Fear of Doing Things Wrong:
Flexibility: Understand that deities are often more understanding than we think. Intentions matter more than rigid adherence to rituals. If you approach with respect and sincerity, minor mistakes are often forgiven.
Learning Process: It's okay to learn and grow. Many practitioners find their path through trial and error. Deities appreciate genuine effort and growth.
2. Fear of Negative Consequences:
Respect & Boundaries: As long as you approach deities with respect and maintain clear boundaries, negative consequences are rare. Communicate openly and honestly with the deity about your fears and intentions.
Protection Practices: Incorporate protection practices into your routine, such as grounding, shielding, or using protective crystals and herbs.
3. Choosing A Deity:
Research: Take your time to research and learn about different deities. Look for ones whose attributes and stories resonate with you.
Signs & Synchronicities: Pay attention to signs, dreams, and synchronicities that might indicate a deity is reaching out to you. Trust your intuition.
4. Fear of Commitment:
There's a misconception that once you start working with a deity, you're bound to them forever. In reality, relationships with deities can be fluid and adaptable. It's perfectly okay to take breaks, reassess your spiritual path, or even change directions entirely. Deities understand that your spiritual journey is personal and ever-evolving. They are there to support and guide you, not confine you. So, if you feel the need to step back or explore a different path, know that it's a natural part of your spiritual growth and development.
5. Fear of Judgement:
Many people fear being judged by others for their spiritual practices. It's important to remind them that their spiritual journey is deeply personal and unique to them. Everyone's path is different, and what feels right for one person may not resonate with another. Encouraging others to trust their intuition and follow what feels right for them, regardless of others' opinions, is crucial. Spirituality is about finding a connection that brings inner peace and fulfillment, and that can only be achieved by staying true to oneself. So, it's essential to prioritize personal beliefs and experiences over external judgement.
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