Fiction Meets Reality

As you may have guessed by now, I'm a big reader.  I'm one of those freaks who likes to read about five books at once (I get it from my dad).  I read everything: sci-fi, mysteries, history, instructionals, everything.  Of all genres, fantasy is by far my favorite.  There's nothing I like better than being swept away by a magical tale - what witch wouldn't?  But in the best fantasy writing, there's something more than good storytelling going on.

You see, I have a theory about our best authors.  They're more than wordsmiths.  I think they're a very special kind of seer.  Reality is a large and rather incomprehensible thing.  There are more worlds than we can ever know, more universes and versions of reality than the human mind could ever comprehend.  All of those worlds, those parallel and crosswise realities, create ripples in the energy of reality and - just like a radio tuner can pick up certain frequencies and bring them to our ears - some people can pick them up in their minds.  Maybe it comes to them in dreams, in bursts of sudden inspiration, or a slow growing knowledge, but somehow these folks pick up bits and pieces of what's happening in other realities, other times.  The best of these folks then spin those truths into a cohesive story. Totally out there right?  I admit it, this theory is a bit nutty, but it's what I think. 

Have you ever stood right next to a huge bell or drum when it's been hit?  You get that weird resonance that flows right through you and makes the world seem to shake?  That's what happens to me when I come across TRUTH.  That's the feeling I got when I went to my first ritual, the feeling I got the first time I was truly in the presence of my God, the feeling I got when I first saw the energy of the earth.  It's the feeling I use as a litmus test  to figure out whether something I think or read is true.  I get that feeling when I'm reading certain versions of mythology that hit on something important. 

I get that feeling when I read certain parts of certain books.  Does that mean that I think the exact storyline I'm reading has actually happened exactly as written off in some far flung version of reality...not exactly.  That feeling tells me that there's something in what I'm reading that is important.  It can be a bit of storyline, a bit of cosmology, philosophy, or morality.  Sometimes it's the existence of an entire world. 

Why does that matter?  Because when something hits that resonance it seems to be my God's method of telling me I need to pay attention to it.  It has something important to teach or a warning to give.  I feel that that mean it's real, but honestly it doesn't much matter.  The important thing is to pay attention to that feeling and find out what needs to be learned.  Do you ever get that feeling when you're reading something that's just supposed to be a bit of fun?  What lessons have your Gods been trying to tell you?

Why Ghosts of Children are the Worst

It's no secret that I'm not exactly the motherly type.  I don't like children.  I really don't like children.  One of the few things I like less than living children are the ghosts of children.  Oh, but aren't they sad little darlings who need love and acceptance to be shown into the light you ask?  Not so much, at least not in my experience.

Almost by definition, all ghosts of children died untimely deaths.  The death of any child is a terrible tragedy; an unthinkable crime against the natural order of things.  However, the incredible bereavement of a family is not what creates a ghost. Children can become intelligent ghosts (as opposed to mere residuals) for lots of reasons, but the grand majority of them were children who were murdered or mistreated in some horrible way.  This does not necessarily create the most sane and stable spirits.

Children do not have a fully developed sense of morality.  The younger they are the less likely they are to understand the difference between right and wrong, the difference between innocent play and a horror show.  Anyone who's watched a five year old pull the legs off a spider one by one knows this.  Children who have been mistreated their whole lives are even less likely to understand good behavior verses bad behavior.  Do you think this gets better when they die?  Nope.  So now, rather than having a mistreated and slightly feral child, you have a mistreated and slightly feral ghost who no longer has the constraints of a physical body nor the slightest fear of punishment for any action.  Darling little angels my ass.

The ghosts of children are much, much more likely to engage in poltergeist activity and to scare the living daylights out of you; largely because they think it's fun and have no idea that they shouldn't.  The ghosts of children will move objects, follow you down hallways, pinch, kick, push, and generally make your life hell.  Sometimes it's because they desperately want attention and acknowledgment, but sometimes it's just because they think it's funny.  The spirit of an adult can be reasoned with, placated, threatened, or cajoled; not so much with children.  The ghosts of children either quiet down when they get a little tlc or they run amok until their banished.  I really, really don't like dealing with them.

Another huge problem with the ghosts of children is that just because something says it's the ghost of a little child doesn't mean it actually is one.  There are lots of very bad things out there that will pretend to be the ghost of a child because people usually won't put up protections against what they think is an innocent.  What are you more likely to let into your life, something claiming to be a five year old that lost its mother or something claiming to be a non-human that wants to eat your life force? Hmmmm?  How do you know the difference?  Honestly, if you can't feel energies are aren't psychically looking for masks I don't know. 

If you think you're in the presence of a ghostly child you need to put up all the protections you would for any other unknown metaphysical being.  Unless you're an expert you really don't know what you're dealing with, and even if you are you still probably don't know for certain.

I really, really hate dealing with dead kids.

Ritual for Cutting Ties

A few months ago a very good friend of mine had a really bad break-up.  The relationship had been fairly toxic and she had really cared about the douchebag in question.  It was one of those relationships that creates a really strong bond between the people in it, the kind of bond that isn't easily broken.  Even after a month or two my friend was still in pretty bad shape, to the point where the baggage from the old relationship was affecting any new ones she was trying to cultivate.

She asked for my help in creating a ritual to help her really cut ties with her ex so that she could move on and I was only too happy to help.  The trick, of course, would be doing something strong enough to cut the bond and cauterize the wound without actually harming him.  It's very difficult to do magick regarding someone you're angry with without "accidentally" cursing them.  There are few things more effective at making me angry than hurting my friends, so I was pretty damned pissed at this guy and my friend was pretty irate.  Here's what I came up with:

Ritual for Cutting Ties
A ritual for cutting ties with someone that is no longer a part of your life.  If you really, truly mean to stop giving energy to someone (including in hate form), then this will help you to do so.  Your behavior must support the intent of this spell.  Once you've done it there shall be no more online stalking, driving by the person's house, or musing on what the person is doing right now. You have to mean it!

As with any banishing, this is best done during the waning or new moon.

Ingredients:

• 1 plain poppet, mostly sewn but unstuffed (basically a rag doll, should be colored in a way that reminds you of the person)
• small items representing the relationship (such as ticket stubs, printed emails, etc.  If you don't have much you can write all of your feelings about the relationship on a piece of paper and then rip it into strips)
• slip of paper with the person's name on it
• a photo of the person (if you have it)
• dried herbs for stuffing (rue, nettle, anything thorny and unpleasant - but not toxic when burnt)
• twine/yarn (at least three feet)
• a pair of scissors
• a safe place to burn the poppet and matches

Spend a good week or so gathering the ingredients for this spell.  Think of this phase as bringing all the last scraps of the relationship into one place.

Sew together your poppet and fill it with the items that represent the relationship and the dried herbs, along with the photo and person's name.  If you're into embroiders you can embroider the person's name on the poppet.

On the night of the ritual case a circle, call the elements, and any appropriate dieties.  We called on the crone, as the mistress of all things "cauterizing."

State the purpose of the ritual.  You should do this aloud and in your own words.  You need to state why you want to cut all ties and show that you mean it.  The powers you have called on will judge your sincerity and give or withhold aid based on how they find you.

Now bind yourself with the string to the poppet.  (We looped the yarn several times around the poppet and then several times around my friend, with a little extra back and forth for good measure.)  Then say, "I now cut and cauterize all my ties with [X]," while cutting the yarn with the scissors.

Unravel yourself and the poppet, thank any powers you've called on, and dismiss your circle.

Now, burn the poppet.  If you don't have a good place to do so you can unpick all the stitches of the poppet and then bury the components.