On sticking with divination tools

I recently put an 'empty' bottle of chocolate flavoured milk in my bag. I could have sworn it was empty and also that the top was on. In practice neither can have been the case because *everything* in my bag got some chocolate milk on, including a deck of tarot cards I had in there. They were Fournier's Tarot Genoves, actually one of my favourite decks, and they had been knocking baout in there with a rubber band round them for ages, in case of urgent reference. You'll notice the Hound doesn't always treat his divination tools with the respect they need. The upshot was, in addition to being a reproduction vintage deck, they now both look extremely vintage - the brown spots look just like foxing - but smell delicious!

I'm not going to replace them, I'm going to carry on using them. That incident I think is one of the life experiences that we go through with divination tools that make them ours and part of us. But this incident has caused me to reflect on the number of tarot decks I have - particularly as I found myself on amazon.it last night, looking at regional Italian playing cards. I have posted before about how I learned tarot - I learned with a Morgan-Greer deck, my actual deck got thrown out eventually because it was worn out. I then moved on to a Rider-Waite, and I actually have a deck I've made up myself of cards from several different decks. More recently I've been reading with an Etteilla (the deck illustrated here) and have settled down to the non-reversible Italian type of gaming deck, because they give such frank readings.

I also realise that while my introductory post to kipper cards is one of the most popular posts on this blog, I haven't posted on them since. I haven't read with them, or even looked at them: to be frank the reason is I'm not sure where the damn things are. But they're obviously not shouting 'I have something to tell you!' from wherever they are.

I have however been feeling that it's time to start on another way of reading - a deck that I have no knowledge of, that I can come to with no preconceptions and can make a new relationship with. After having looked at the Italian regional decks last night I'm not sure that this is the answer. I think I have more than enough tarot decks in the house. I think the message of the chocolate milk is - stop trying to find another deck. Read me. Keep me. Build a more enduring relationship with me. Because actually that deck continues to come up with answers, so really why would I need to find another? I'll carry on until they look like this Etteilla card, and either be buried with them or leave them to one of my Goddess children.

Imagine what the Etteilla card that illustrates this post could say, if it could really speak! The number of hands it's been through, the number of readings, of good endings and bad endings, happiness and sadness. Somehow I think a divination tool should have seen it all. Wonder what I'll spill on them next...

Urban Grimoire: The Witch Diet

In which the Hound gives details for a spell to improve self-esteem, assist people to eat the best for them, reducing fretting about food & improving health. Disclaimer: if you have *any* medical problems at all or if your weight is objectively high or low, follow your own health professional's advice. My instinct is that it won't differ greatly from the general principles I'm going to give here, but the whole point of being a witch is autonomy as an individual, isn't it?

The Problem
We live in a world which is divorced from itself. A small proportion of people own the majority of the wealth. A dichotomy exists between a frequent valuing of being overweight (as a sign of health & prosperity) in poorer cultures, & an over-valuing of thinness in richer cultures. It is only right that this should appear on a city-based witch's blog, because the reality is city people are disconnected from the sources & nature of the food they eat. Nobody really lives (in the Western world, at least) according to the agricultural rhythms of the past, leading to a nostalgia for that - often romanticised - past & the growth of neo-Paganism. Coupled with this is the growth of a *huge* diet industry, & yet strangely we're also in the middle of an obesity epidemic. There's clearly something very strange here. I myself couldn't begin to tell you when things are in season (apart from when they get cheaper in shops), & I notice in the fridge I've got onions & peppers from 'Britain' (wherever that means), blueberries from Spain, & the milk is Polish.

Some of the odd things going on
People eat without reference to their own body's needs (for example following one-size-fits-all diet recommendations). Sounds pretty freaky, when it's put like that, doesn't it?
People are so out of touch with their own needs that they 'forget to eat'.
People fetishize weight gain - as in feeders or gainers. Now I like a man to have a bit of flesh on him, but obesity as a fetish is just weird.
People repeatedly go on different diets, despite the simple fact that dieting makes you put weight on.
People get fundamentalist about having to have some foods (such as 'superfoods') & avoid others.

Things to be wary of
Any diet plan that is prescriptive without reference to your body's needs.
Any diet plan that aims to send your body into starvation even temporarily (that is pretty well all of them).
Any diet plan that does not recommend simple balanced, varied, regular eating.
Any diet plan that emphasises certain 'superfoods'.
Any diet plan with numbers in the title (creating confusion), periods of fasting, anything like that.
Demonising certain foods (or even food groups) as 'bad' & disallowing them.
'Portion sizes' determined without reference to the needs of the person eating.

Some facts about nutrition & weight
How metabolism really works: assuming you are eating a sensible balanced, varied diet, as you eat more, your metabolism increases. Therefore for many people weight loss will mean eating more, just changing the proportions of what they eat. Some people have a naturally fast metabolism. (Most diets 'work' at first by causing starvation or confusion, & hence cannot work in the long run)
We all have a particular body shape that is biologically determined. Any attempt to escape from this is doomed to failure, or in the long term, serious illness.
It is also theorised that we have a 'set point weight' that is our natural weight & once again attempts to escape from that are doomed.
The most healthy way to eat in the long term is always a healthy, balanced, sufficient, & varied diet. On/off bouts of fads & diets confuse the metabolism & ultimately will lead to weight gain. Remember, you're getting this advice for free. I have *nothing* to gain from this, apart from the satisfaction of helping to free the world from quack diet merchants.

Aim of the spell
To be free of obsessive dieting.
To improve self-esteem.
To eat healthily.
To improve long-term health.
To improve the connection with ones own body needs.
THE SPELL (got there in the end)
Look at yourself in the mirror every morning & tell yourself that you love yourself. Make it as simple or ritualistic as you like, but *believe it*. As you grow in the love of yourself you will improve your care of yourself. If some people treated an animal the way they treat themselves, they'd be banned from keeping animals.
Eat when you start to get hungry, eat until you feel full & then stop. If you find you 'forget to eat', eat every few hours: this should improve your connection to your body's signals in itself. Both of these approaches should equate to eating every few hours, ideally with three meals & three 'snacks' in between.
Eat foodstuffs in the proportions shown in the plate that illustrates this post, aiming to balance the proportions daily. There's a slightly different illustration used in the US, but the guidelines won't differ greatly.
Vary what you eat within each foodgroup. Avoid eating the same things over & over, or avoiding some foodstuffs completely.
You *must* have 'treats'. Notice how fats & sugars appear on the plate: just in their proportion. If you don't have nice things to eat you'll feel you're depriving yourself & it will become a chore.
If you start craving particular foodstuffs, make sure to include those in moderation. Bodies have this wonderful way of telling us what we need.
If you don't follow this at some point, don't fret over it, just carry on from there.

Three special cases
Weight & metabolism are influenced in particular ways by alcohol & smoking. There is no safe limit for smoking, but it increases your metabolism so smokers tend to weigh less. If you stop you'll likely put weight on, but smoking is so dangerous I think you're probably better focussing on stopping, then dealing with the aftermath. Because of the cell mutations it takes many years for them to mutate back, but the weight gain is said to last a years maximum, then when you feel ready to make even more positive changes in your life in your diet you can.
Alcohol also can cause weight gain. I think probably the witch way to approach any addictive substance is a full & frank account of how we actually use that substance. This wouldn't be a not at all substance.
Another substance that we can/must have is sugar. The problem with sugar is the quantity: especially as it's hidden in so many foods. Its long-term effects are not that dissimilar to alcohol, but it's one to keep an eye out for, because it's another major cause of obesity & illness.
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The Curse of the Witch

Sounds like a horror film, that, doesn't it? I can almost write the screenplay off the top of my head - family move to a country cottage, terrible things happen to them, it becomes apparent from the locals it belonged to an old woman with a cat. The woman was wronged somehow, did something, the cottage has been no good for anyone to live in ever since.
That scenario, while variations of it are common in horror films & folklore, only appears at the top of this post to illustrate what the post is *not* about! In my usual pedantic way there's a grammatical point to be made about the title: 'of the witch' is the genitive case, & means belonging or pertaining to the witch. I will not repeat my numerous previous comments on the meanings & nuances of the word 'witch'. Since the curse of which I speak is 'of the witch' it could actually be a curse on the witch herself, or a curse the witch has put on someone else.
The reality is that the witch - a competent witch - would rarely, if ever feel the need to put an actual curse on someone or something. It is essential that the witch is able to do so, & if the witch is not able to step up to the bar she will frequently find she is confronted with the sort of situation where she feels it is necessary to do so, but in reality a curse initiated by the magical practitioner is way too much like hard work. Just as usually, when as individual feels they are cursed, it is them somehow cursing themselves, usually when someone/thing *needs* to be cursed they will usually merrily do it themselves if you let them, or sometimes slightly push them in the direction in which they are already going.
And the reason why it might be necessary to curse someone cuts right to the heart of what magic is about. I'm also not planning on repeating my opinions on why the 'Law of Three' can't possibly be true, but we humans do somehow bring the things that happen to us, on ourselves. There will always be some level on which the person who can't find another half, only attracts heels, does it over & over again, is doing this themselves. This is the real nature of everyone's curse: we keep on doing the same nonsense. If the witch can recognise this pattern & move it on somehow, that is a very effective curse. For example, a perfect situation would be a case I was reading of recently where a man who works as a stablehand likes sex with animals, & actually has sex with the animals in his care, damaging them & causing them distress on the way. He has been caught doing this *fourteen* times. The last time - the leniency of this sentence staggers me - he was banned from keeping animals for *one year* & fined - get this - 200 dollars. That's two-oh-oh. Ideal subject for a curse this. In fact even as I write those words I can feel the anger of the Goddess building up & the laughter of the universe starting up as he nears a sticky end. It is plain that in this case human justice will not deal with him effectively, & that he will continue. So the thing to do is use that. So what's going to happen is he will choose to penetrate a horse or donkey that is not as placid as it seems, one that will kick out. If he's lucky he might live. It is done: the witch has spoken.
And that brings me nicely to the witch's own curse, which is surely that of simply being a witch at all. In addition to the curse I talk about above, that we all carry round with us, the witch has the curse of being the witch. The responsibility. The duty. The privilege. Often witches go through some *terrible* stuff, more than can conceivably be caused by one person's learning needs in one incarnation. I feel this is because we somehow attract those who need a cosmic slap. The guy above would be the perfect example. And there is no such thing as a day off from being a witch - we're witches all the time, & thus continually are confronted with other people's need for a slap.
Of course it can be difficult to tell which is which. It is not an invariable rule, but I feel witchily dealing with your own stuff will feel relatively more painful, since it usually cuts to the heart of who the witch is. My experience of dealing with other people's stuff is that it usually feels more joyous, with a sense of putting things right. Some of these experiences will also have an initiatory air about them, & thus even more be cases of having to make decisions quickly with *no* way of weighing all the consequences.
So this is why, when people say, 'I wannabeawitch,' I say, 'No, you don't.' The hours are unsocial in the extreme, the pay is uncertain, the prospects of promotion are negligible at best. It also leaves you marked for life: it's almost like you curse yourself at some point. However you have to be prepared to do this, otherwise you are always left at the junction of a crossroads. And this junction is one that you can't return from.
Coming next: 'Grumpy Old Witches'.
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Hidden City: Curzon Street Station & Cat

To Curzon Street Station today, on one of the incredibly rare occasions when it is open to the public. It is actually well-known as a landmark, seen from the train as you approach from the Coventry side of the city, a rare glimpse of loveliness for years & years among the abomination of desolation that Eastside used to be. It was Birmingham's original railway station, opened in 1838, & remained so until New Street opened, so that the posh people coming for the attractions of New Street didn't have to see the slums of Park Street. It was designed by John Hardwicke, who also designed the now-demolished Euston arch in London, & is a seriously sexy building. I have been gagging to get a glimpse of the inside for literally decades.
This is a blog primarily about witchcraft, so it can only be expected that my slant on things is often going to be somewhat...unusual. I won't hold back, therefore, from going straight into the weird shit about Birmingham's railway stations. There is an irony about the Victorians moving the main station to New Street. I will grant you that the Park Street area of the city can be a real challenge, in energy terms, as it were. Even the slightest hint of psychic ability allows one to pick up on the resonances of the teeming slum that that side of the city once was. Personally I don't feel this to be related to the grave yard, I feel it is related to the long history of chaotic living & conflict that that area would have known. What you *see* therefore as you come into the city, is almost a battle ground. For a psychic, the irony is that the atmosphere of what is now called Eastside is not half as bad as that of New Street Station. I feel one of the reasons people love to hate Birmingham is what they land up in at New Street is a literal cesspit. Even cowans pick this up: New Street is notorious both for suicides & its hauntings (I have resisted writing an actual spirit of place post about New Street, but see for example http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/haunted/2008/12/ghost-trains-and-haunted-railw.html and http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-new-street-station-haunting-179968).
Anyway the result of opening Curzon Street station for an exhibition of pictures of normally-unseen places in the city (ten till three daily, this week only) was a huge crowd of people with cameras. Obviously I'm not the only one who's been gagging to get in there for years. The actual building is all I was hoping it would be, in fact better. It is a seriously sexy building, whose predominating atmosphere is of dignity & solidity. It also isn't half as wrecked inside as I thought it would be: it is certainly in better nick than Moseley Road Baths, also 'looked after' by the council.
One of the reasons people were so snap-happy was that, while the pictures actually featured in some supplements in the Birmingham Post - & may therefore have been missed - the places were in reality a mixture of places you have *some* hope of seeing (such as Perrott's Folly) & places that you actually have no realistic hope of seeing in the near future or ever. These would include the inside of the Grand Hotel (been there, actually I've been asked politely to leave the bar, but it doesn't look like that's reopening any time soon), New Street Station signal box, the famous underground telephone exchange, the ballroom (didn't know about that) at Aston fire station, Steelhouse Lane custody suite (no, I have *never* been there), & the actual Big Brum bells (in the tower of the council house). And all this in a gorgeous building that is *almost* never open to the public. There are a few more sights that I have passively viewed on urban exploration sites, such as the bank on Broad Street - it's been done, it's been done to death. It's open sometimes for things, anyway, & looks...well, the way you'd expect a bank to look behind the scenes. The majority of these places I personally have at least seen pictures of, so I think the main point of the exhibition is to get into the station in person. In fact if you missed them the pictures are on the website related to this exhibition: http://www.hidden-spaces.co.uk/ .
Now you wouldn't know it was me if I didn't somehow turn the sanest of subjects weird, so I have to bring in the Curzon Street cat, surely a hero of this story. I was hoping to meet the subject of such a genuinely old magical practice, but he or she didn't make an appearance & anyway I feel probably would be a terminally pissed off dead cat. Don't try this at home, kids: this is a genuinely old magical practice that you won't find in Silver Ravenwolf or Scott Cunningham. It appears here as an antidote to the naffness of much modern paganism (I was going to write a whole post about the said naffness, timed carefully to coincide with the solstice junket to Stonehenge, but felt I would come across as snarky even by my standards. & rather post about something that interests *me*) & as a reminder that magic, indeed life itself, comes down to blood & bone. Our encounter with that life is what enables us to turn one thing into another.
'Birmingham's most bizarre Victorian relic is on track for a purr-fect journey to immortality.
'A mummified cat – buried alive under the floorboards of Birmingham's Curzon Street train station in 1838 – could have pride of place in the new station to be built in the city as part of the controversial HS2 high-speed rail network.
'The Birmingham terminus – initially linking to London but later to other major cities – will be on the site of the old station.
'And the cat and other curios from Curzon Street could be included in a sale by Birmingham City Council, which owns the site, to the company behind HS2.
'It is believed that the cat was originally placed in the station as part of a gruesome Victorian tradition to bring the building, and its future staff, good luck.
'The custom required a live cat to be placed under the last floorboard, or the final brick in a wall.
'The cat would naturally die, either from lack of oxygen, starvation or thirst – or all three – so the 'lucky omen' was far from lucky for the victim.
'The standard of workmanship in the Victorian era was so high that the floorboard void, or the bricked-in cavity, was airtight.
'So instead of decaying, the corpse mummified.
'The feline remains – and other artefacts – were unearthed by builders carrying out major construction work on Curzon Street Station in the 1980s.
'It was decided to retain the curios and place them in glass-fronted display cabinets set into the walls of the building.
'The mummified cat was a quirky – but little-known – attraction at the former station when it served as offices for several training organisations.
'Birmingham City Council has owned the freehold of Curzon Street station since 1980 and it has been unoccupied since 2001, although a few art exhibitions have been staged there in between.
'The cat, which never appears to have been given a name, was removed for safekeeping from Curzon Street by the city council and it is now in safe storage.' (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/curzon-street-cat-rise-up-4703773)
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How people get drawn to the witch

I've been thinking this week, not for the first time, of the way the witch functions in the world - not really in terms of polarity as such, but certainly in terms of attraction. The received wisdom is that what you give out returns to you, indicating that what comes to you is somehow of your own causation. This is patently nonsense. If it was true, I would only be surrounded by well-wishing people who just want to get on with life & make the world a better place. I'm writing this with a completely straight face. Instead yesterday I remonstrated with a bus driver who thought it would be hilarious to pretend not to hear me after I asked her to let me off when the bus was just sitting in a stop, instead driving off. I could have told her that she really ought to get her stomach problem looked at by a doctor, & instead I happen to know that the irritations she causes to other people have all come back at once. Similarly, the doctor's rceptionist was very disappointed when I actually asked for an appointment on a date when she couldn't find a 'reason' not to give me one.
What's going on here? - my feeling is that people end up in the orbit of the witch to get something they need, whether it be a healing, a lesson, a cosmic slap, whatever. In no way do we judge or create these scenarios, we don't need to, they just happen. The so-called Law of Attraction (or return) is right, insofar as we live in a universe of interacting substances. Just as homeostasis is maintained by the continual interaction & competition of numerous substances & entities, so situations will be drawn into the orbit of the witch who can & will do what is necessary. We all have a magical 'signature' & that is what draws the scenarios best dealt with by our kind of magic, into our orbit. I am *not* saying that you attract what you do to happen to you, I am saying that you attract (by positive or negative feedback) the situations that are corrected by the things you do. I would even go so far as to say that you could consciously slightly change your magical signature, & hence what you attract to yourself, but in reality this interaction is also influenced by where the witch is herself, so while not being quite fated, the point is much more how you personally respond. Since feedback comes in positive & negative forms, your response can still influence this either way & may increase or decrease the occurrence of the same situation. Hence the importance of divination, to see the things you 'can't' see.
Once a person takes on the mantle of the witch figure, her interactions with the whole world change. I fully expected, when I started this blog, that it would be visited mostly by witches. I'm sure this is partly the case - certainly the high number of page views from America & the relatively high number of searches for witchy things that come here, would suggest this is the case. But I've also been surprised at some of the searches that unwittingly bring people into the orbit of the witch. Google 'gay men and their mothers', for instance, & this blog is on the first page of results. Some people find themselves reading my pages on the spirit of place, having searched for information on specific places. Just to finish: this is the list of searches that have brought people here this week. I'm just sad that Philipp Tanzer, who appeared last week, is missing. I've literally just mentioned him *once*, talking about tattoos! The point of this is that people don't find themselves in the orbit of the witch because they are consciously looking for a witch, but for all sorts of reasons. Even the witch won't always see the bigger picture or know why, but my conviction remains that it is our duty & privilege to help & heal all that comes to us. Our ability to do so depends on it, this is what Robert Cochrane was referring to when he spoke about accepting all that comes, partnered with using all means necessary, which does not mean a passive acceptance of things as they are, it means an active acceptance of everything as part of homeostasis.

Entry Pageviews
"prick up your ears" movie watch
blog grimoire cunning
glass fishing floats spiritual
modern worship of baal and astarte wicca
silver ravenwolf criticism
ye bok of ye art magical.pdf
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A Planned Memorial to Joe Orton

I've posted on here about Joe Orton before - I love his wit, his intelligence, his sharpness. I was delighted to read this story about a proposed memorial to him & simply had to reblog it here!
'Whilst Islington today lacks any historic public conveniences there was a time in the 1980s when it looked as if a new facility would be built and named after one of the borough's most famous residents, the playwright Joe Orton. Islington Council in the 1980s was notoriously left wing and keen to appeal to minority groups so when the twentieth anniversary of the playwright's death arrived in 1987 a group within the council suggested a new set of public conveniences be built to honour Orton, who by that time, due to a recent biopic, had become almost as famous for committing gay sex acts in toilets as he was for his groundbreaking plays. Along with naming the toilet after him, the council also planned to build a bronze statue of Orton, which was to be placed at the far end of the urinals and depict him performing a lewd act whilst cheekily winking at anyone using the facility. However, the idea faced opposition from Thatcher's government and the right wing press partly because Orton had been imprisoned in the early 1960s for defacing books from two of the borough's libraries, and in the face of strong objection the idea was dropped.' (http://londonlavatorylegends.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/islington-n1.html?m=1)
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Judy Grahn on Action

I have been very struck by a passage about the lesbian poet Judy Grahn, in a book I am reading about resisting assimilation (reference below). I simply cannot agree with her more - involved in the Women's Spirituality movement as she was or is, perhaps she has an instinct for creating reality in accordance with will. All acts of love & pleasure are my rituals, in deed!
'Judy Grahn, the great lesbian poet, was once asked what she might regret about her pioneering work as artist & activist. She said she regretted all the women she had not been able to sleep with & to love. You can't help - in these days when we duck stones thrown by those who have been washed in the blood of the lamb, those without sin - being struck by the enormous generosity of Grahn's statement & by her confidence that her queer loving was a contribution she could make to the lives of oppressed women. Some might nervously titter at this, as if Grahn were mistakenly making something grand out of the trivial, narrow queer sexual connection in the context of wider political issues of violence gainst women, etc. But by making our queerest erotic responses visible, in sexuality & in resistance to war, racism, economic deprivation - in all aspects of the struggle for a better world - we can contribute to the liberation of everyone.' (Ferd Eggan: Dykes & Fags Want Everything: Dreaming with the Gay Liberation Front. In Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (editor): That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (New Revised & Expanded Edition). Soft Skull Press, Brooklyn, 2008, pp. 15-16.)
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