A Witch Bitch

Uhm I’m sorry this has been in my drafts for god knows how long I apologize profusely? Also yes I am here for this 10000%

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve basically adopted Lou as one of my many children, and I’ve done a LOT of research into Hecate powers. And, I’ve actually mentioned them in this headcanon.

POWERS.

From what I’ve read in the books, I dislike the way Hecate children do magic, which is pretty similar to the Kane Chronicles. So in my view, it’s done in more of a Harry Potter sense of magic.

Children of Hecate have to have extreme control over their mental and physical forms to perform magic. They have to memorize all of the spells and clearly understand the theories behind them to be able to control them, as well as how to manipulate spells.

Wands are not needed to do magic, but they are used to focus your magic and are usually used across more beginner children of Hecate. As I said, extreme control. For younger children of Hecate, they need wands because they do not yet have the control to do wandless magic. To a well-practiced child of Hecate, a wand may be seen as more of hindrance than a help.

It’s not a cure-all. There’s karma. For example, using a spell to draw energy from things around them may cause a child of Hecate’s strength to grow, but it will kill the things they took energy from. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. (My inner science nerd is powering up sorry).

Now, there’s a reason for all of this control that’s needed. With great power comes great responsibility, essentially. They need to learn to control themselves and their power in order to keep not only themselves but others safe. In my mind and writing, children of Hecate are extremely powerful, but that power comes with a cost. With a weight, a weight of not only knowledge but of sacrifice as well. 

Children of Hecate usually work off of scrolls/runes to learn spells, or learn from a master. They have to either have the scroll directly in front of them, or have the move memorized. The more they do a certain spell, the better they do the  next time they cast it.

The magic children of Hecate posses is sectioned off into branches. There’s main branches, destruction, conjuration, healing, alteration, illusion, and alchemy/enchanting. Children of Hecate can overlap, studying magic from multiple branches, but they do not have enough power to study all the branches, and usually only have an innate affinity for one.

Destruction magic: Magic which destroys others, offensive magic. Spells that are used solely to attack others. Usually a child of Hecate will find an affinity or even just a preference for one basic element, such as fire, water, air, etc.

Conjuration magic: Magic which conjures, can be offensive, defensive, or neutral. For example, you can conjure a creature to fight for you, you can conjure a shield to protect you, or you can conjure a shovel because you really need to hide that body but don’t wanna leave your dna all over an actual shovel. One attacks, one defends, and one is simply a temporary tool.

Healing magic: Magic which can be used to heal yourself or others. Defensive magic. Healing is pretty self explanatory. 

Alteration magic: The altering of something already in the world. Example, turning straw to gold. However, this branch requires a really good understanding of the elements and specific mastery of each type. For example, you want to make glass in a jiffy? You have to find sand and fire, and you need to have a specific idea in your mind as well as a specific spell for that object. Probably the toughest branch because one wrong move and kla-blamo.

Illusion magic: Hiding or altering perceptions. Muffling your footsteps, turning yourself invisible. Sure you could put all of your energy into making yourself transparent, OR you could just put like 10% of your energy into blacking out that monster’s sight so they can’t see you. This branch isn’t about actually changing the world, it’s about altering perceptions. Getting into people’s heads through spells cast on specific people or groups. That means they can also detect things like lies, or perhaps even cast telepathic spells.

Alchemy/enchanting: For people who don’t like actually casting spells that much. Alchemy is potions, which requires vast knowledge of the world around you, not super hard but very easy to get yourself killed if you don’t have a good teacher and you’re stupid. Enchanting is very hard, not for beginners, very very easy to kill yourself or someone else even if you’re not stupid.

And honestly? I don’t see a lot of pros of being a child of Hecate. You need to be rigorous, you need to be strict in your duties and studies, you need to be ready to sacrifice a lot to Hecate. Sure you get cool powers, but it’s also very likely you’ll kill someone unless you’re careful. 

The whole problem is neutral. To read a card you have to let it be what it is, and you cannot do that when you already know what you want it to say. The wanting sits down between you and the card and starts doing the reading for you.

This is projection, and it runs both directions. Sometimes you read the card you were hoping for and call it confirmation. Sometimes a hard card lands and you read the entire spread through dread. Both of those are your own material, not the message on the table.

The clearest tell that it has gone sideways is the re-pull. You do not like what came up, so you shuffle and ask again. The second pull is almost never a cleaner answer. It is you talking over the first one, and the first honest pull is usually the one that held.

The other common wreck is the doom spiral. One heavy card shows up, the Tower or the Ten of Swords, and suddenly every other card in the spread reads like bad news too. The card did not get crueler because it was your spread. You got louder.

So the first practical move is to change the question. Drop 'will this work out for me' and ask 'what does this situation look like from the outside' or 'what is mine to do here.' Third-person, situation-first questions take your thumb off the scale, because you are no longer asking the cards to reassure you.

The second move is to write it down before you interpret it. Question, cards, one flat first impression, and then leave it. Come back and read it later when the heat has gone out of it. The record you made in the calm is almost always more honest than the story you told yourself in the moment.

And sometimes the right call is not to read for yourself at all. When you are too far inside the outcome to hear a no, you will not hear it, and no spread will fix that. Ask someone neutral to read it, or wait until you can. Knowing which questions you are not steady enough to ask yourself yet is skill, not a failure of nerve.

it's those who package them as "ancient, once lost and now revived" etc. that's the issue. and they're usually selling it to you ofc.

it would be wrong to say "bloody mary is actually a celtic goddess whose story was diminished to a children's game because the Church couldn't accept her Power."

if you use your voice to defend people from harm by their own peers, thank you.

if you use your voice to remind people they are worthy and loved, thank you.

if you use your voice to share a hopeful story when people need it most, thank you.

if you use your voice to admire others' strengths, and accept their weaknesses, thank you.

if you use your voice to add kindness and goodness to this world, thank you; thank you for being you in a world that is too often confusing, stressful, or cruel.

the world will always need people like you. anyone who tells you something different is only projecting their weaknesses onto you. if someone devalues your heart, that is not your fault.