#shintowitch

A sometimes overlooked method of spiritual cleansing and purification is the simplest and most logical of them all: plain water.

In many religions the world over, a cleansing of the body by water to purify oneself in preparation for spiritual contact is not uncommon. Shinto shrines are often equipped with chozuya/temizuya, which typically have large basins of water with wooden dippers that can be used to wash one’s hands and mouth prior to entering the shrine.

Misogi is perhaps most famously known as the practise of washing oneself in sacred waterfalls, but what it really means is cleaning the entire body – which oughtn’t be too foreign a concept for most of us.

These rituals are often described as purification rituals, but they are also a form of exorcism in a sense – banishing negativity and spiritual impurities that linger even if they can no longer be seen by the eye. Cold water is typically specified for these cleansings, and the electrifying feeling of a cold shower or bath is undeniable. In some practises it is also part of the water ablutions to recite liturgies or chants.

Tales have been told of the Japanese shamanesses of times gone by dousing themselves in cold water again and again in the the dead of night, in the depths of snow-encrusted winter as a part of their initiation rites – to purify themselves in preparation for spirit possession and to induce within themselves a state of mind quite out of the ordinary. (Note: there are obviously huge risks to personal safety with this sort of ritual, and I am by no means advocating for this specific practise – this is purely informational.)

Originally, this cleansing was done in nature: rivers, lakes, waterfalls, springs, and in some cases in the sea, and for many this is still considered preferable. For many more, this is not a possibility in our day-to-day lives… but what do witches do if not improvise and adapt?

TSUKUMOGAMI

Tsukumogami are a relatively well-known type of yokai (unearthly creature/“monster”) from Japanese folklore which I would define loosely as “old/forgotten object spirits.” It was once commonly believed that all things have an inner spirit, and these tend to become more powerful with age. Superstition has it that tools, utensils, instruments and other man-made items that have reached 99 or 100 years of age become powerful enough to become sentient and self-aware, and gain supernatural abilities.

Through being forgotten, abandoned, broken, replaced, or otherwise treated poorly, angry and vengeful tsukumogami can manifest. It has also been said they can manifest if an object has witnessed or been in the vicinity of a terrible crime or great spiritual impurity. Two of the most commonly depicted tsukumogami in Japanese pop culture are umbrellas and paper lanterns – not surprising given how often and easily they break.

Most tsukumogami are relatively harmless, and there are even folk tales of some friendly tsukumogami enjoying playing games with children. Others, however, can be disruptive and even dangerous and bring about a great deal of trouble. It all depends on how they were treated. The longer these objects are left untended, the more negativity can build up around them.

PREVENTING NEGATIVITY

🏮 The easiest preventative measures are not glamorous witchery, but they are important. Repair, recycle, repurpose and regift rather than thoughtlessly throw items away or leave to rot. This has the added bonus of being environmentally friendly and sticking it to the hell-pigs running this bloated consumerist culture of ours.

🏮 Be mindful of where every component of everything you own comes from, and grateful for what they do for you. Give thanks and blessings to the objects you use day by day. Those who give offerings to and maintain a relationship with their house spirit/s – you may have this covered.

🏮 When something you own has irreparably run out the course of its life and must be disposed of, be sure to show appreciation in whatever way makes sense to you. There are still jinja ceremonies held in Japan today to pacify the spirits of forgotten or broken objects such as Hari-Kuyo, the Festival of Broken Needles.

🏮 Dispose of items responsibly – take responsibility for your belongings and your actions! If you toss a refrigerator into a river to save yourself some trouble, frankly, you might just deserve to get a bit haunted. 

MANIFESTATIONS

🏮 In visual mediums, tsukumogami have historically been depicted as looking similar to the object itself but becoming monstrous, sprouting eyes or mouths or limbs or other human/animal features. This could be symbolic of the items “coming to life,” of course, but then who knows what your things get up to when you’re not looking? (Toy Story: a cautionary tale of demonic possession?)

🏮 A rotting smell that comes and goes, a creaking or jangling or scraping of rusty spokes, flashes of imagery, or perhaps just a sense that touches on the back of your subconscious that speaks of corrosion and decay. Everyone’s intuition is different, but almost anyone can pick up on these things if they pay attention.

🏮 The actions of malevolent tsukumogami in folklore run the gamut from simple mischief (hiding and moving things, minor illusions) to iller omens (nightmares, attracting ill fortune), and in extreme cases can get into the dangerous.

🏮 Even small and seemingly unimportant objects can become powerful tsukumogami under the right circumstances. It is not the object itself but the spirit that is the factor in this, especially in terms of age and negative experience. Don’t let expectations misguide you.

🏮 It is a widely held belief that electronic devices cannot become tsukumogami as the electrical energy drives spirits away. However, depictions are becoming more common (perhaps the idea is that spirits are adapting), and once an item is broken and no longer powered by electricity, it likely isn’t protected that way any more.

MAKING AMENDS

If you believe a tsukumogami is causing problems and you wanna witchcraft your way out of it, logically, the easiest starting point is to find out which object it has manifested from. Older objects are much more likely to manifest in ways that are troublesome, being more powerful, but there are other factors that can also bring about a manifestation. Discern and study. Find the source of the issue. And then?

Remember what’s forgotten. Find what’s lost. Fix what’s broken. This is all a witch’s work, or part of it. What, you were hoping for a lightning-throwing demon fight rather than what sounds suspiciously like household chores? If you can’t get to grips with this part of the work, you’re not ready for spirit work. That’s right. I went full Mentor.

Sometimes, though, it’s more difficult to figure out exactly what the spirit wants or needs. Discernment skills and common sense are your best friends here, as is any means to communicate with spirits that you may have. I mean, it could simply tell you what it wants and you could strike up a deal to end the trouble there and then. Perhaps you’ll learn something interesting from it. Don’t doubt the advice a lowly watering can might give you…

If the tsukumogami is angry and not in the mood to resolve things for whatever reason, typically the next step is to try and appease it. This can be done through ritual, through remembrance and prayer, through offerings – there is no one-size-fits-all approach. By all accounts, a bit of improvising/adapting to account for the foibles of each spirit is always involved, and it will depend on you and your practise too.

Banishment is the last resort, to be used only if the spirit seems inconsolable or is too powerful for you to walk back. Do not just drop kick the affected object into the nearest trash compactor – you are either passing on a bigger and angrier problem to someone else or setting yourself up for some Bad Vibes, a stain upon your soul, a hex upon your house! Holding a “funeral” bound by some spellcraft is a nice, gentle way of laying an object and its spirit to rest, and the jinja ceremonies I mentioned before are typically framed like funerals.

Less nice and less gentle means may be necessary sometimes, but forcibly driving a spirit out of a “possessed” object is something I won’t go into it here. That’s not a game… if sources are to be believed. Just fix your shit!

REMEMBRANCE

Some lost or forgotten objects are worth finding, keeping and cherishing. Some can find new life with a new owner, or be broken down and used for parts for something new. Others need laying to rest. From a bicycle rusting away in a ditch to a hand-me-down with an uncertain history mouldering in one’s attic, the man-made things that surround us are as part of this world as the natural and they are our responsibility. You are beholden to the tools that improve your life – we are all beholden to our shared environment.

These items came from nature one way or another, as everything does, but they were shaped anew by humans. Alchemy! Why wouldn’t they bring a spark of their soul along? Some negative tsukumogami can be dangerous, but it is often the neglect, carelessness or arrogance of humans that create the “worst” tsukumogami in the first place.

Our planet is reaching critical mass with the amount of unnecessary products being created and churned through production lines, corporations, consumers and then into landfill sites. Tsukumogami have long since been regarded as monsters and demons in folk tales and superstition, but perhaps in a way we need them now more than ever…

LEAF SCRYING 🍃

A little scrying method I thought up when I was exploring about and happened to find this delightful speckled plant… a casual, simple scrying method using the natural patterns found on leaves.

🌿 It seems more natural to me to think up the question or subject of your divination and hold this in your mind while selecting the leaf for the reading. Let intuition guide you to a leaf – don’t look at them too closely.

🌿 Speckled leaves like these are ideal for scrying by the more traditional definition – sitting down on the grass, relaxing one’s gaze, getting into that scrying mindset and letting the patterns speak to you, building constellations and reading shapes and symbols.

🌿 You can also use the veins, shapes, size, natural flaws, etc in leaves as part of reading or scrying them too. It likely helps to get to know a particular type of leaf quite well so that you can begin building up meanings around the various quirks that may appear in a particular leaf. (It would also help to touch upon getting to know a particular plant’s spiritual life.)

🌿 As with many types of scrying, instinct and intuition are your greatest guides.

🌿 Particularly good, I would imagine, for divination relating to earthy matters (prosperity, practicality, abundance, growth, home, ancestry). Different plants may also have different correspondences and associations for you.

🌿 You could keep the leaf afterwards, either as a memento to stick in your grimoire/on your altar or to use in a spell relating to what you divined (perhaps to change misfortunes, or to materialise the good).

Bells might just be the earliest form of superstitious practise that I remember. My baba attached three sakura-patterned suzu bells on my schoolbag as a kid, purportedly for good luck and protection from evil spirits -- and Japan is far from the only place to have associated bells and bellringing with mystic practise. They’ve been used worldwide to ward off evil and carry messages – and in a more metaphysical sense, sound is the movement of energy through substance. Sounds have the potential to work powerful magic.

Here are some of the ways I’ve found utilising bells to be helpful to my craft. While I’m more likely to use traditional suzu type bells, your own background, path and culture will likely have its own types of bells – and as ever, bells can be ornate antiques or they can be a bottle cap in a tin can, as long as they’re used with intent.

GETTING STARTED

🔔 As with so much of the craft, if you’re new to the witching bell, it’s a matter of exploration and experimentation. Get a “feel” for what works for you and the specific bell you’re using.

🔔 It’s good practise to ensure that the bell itself is cleansed, warded and protected – you don’t want anything nasty tapping into that power. All witching tools can do as much harm as good, intentional or accidental.

🔔 A good way to begin incorporating bells into your craft is infuse them into any typical ritual that you’re comfortable with, or even just a prayer or moment of contemplation at your altar if you have one.

🔔 Give the bell a soft ring while focusing on the energy it’ll ripple and move, try to track the movements it creates and what it touches. The tone it’s sending out.  The most primal and versatile use of the bell – and what many of the below come down to – is simply another manner of physically channelling energy, giving it shape and direction.

PROTECTION

🔔 “Passive” bells such as windchimes or small bells attached to belongings you don’t want disturbed are a starting point. They will scare off some forms of spirit all by themselves, especially if appropriately blessed, charmed or enchanted. Or cursed.

🔔 Gently tolling can draw energy into a ward or circle you are forming and enforce its protective properties, or for a simple cleanse, letting the sound travel to every corner of the area you are protecting. It’s a little more “cutting” than a smoke or incense cleansing, which I view as more “gentle” forms of cleansing. Both have their uses.

🔔 Harder tolling is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful ways in which to enforce a banishing -- however, it’s best to you know what you’re doing with the bell before you go bashing it about.

DISCERNMENT

🔔 Bells can have quite the effect on your perception and awareness. Ringing and then stopping, listening to the silence left in its wake, can bring you new perceptions or make things you’d previously missed obvious. Let it attune your mind and senses to something new, whether that’s in your thoughts or something with a little more presence. Visualise travelling with the sound, taking heed of the energies it touches and disturbs. Take note of the echoes -- you’ll learn what they mean with experience.

🔔 A set of windchimes can let you know if something is passing through or if there’s some unusual energy afoot – and, yes, it may also just be letting you know that it’s a particularly breezy day, but that’s witchcraft for you.

CONJURING

🔔 This can be as simple as calling good energies to witching tools, spell jars, tarot decks, crystals, altars and shrines, your favourite teddy bar, anything at all.

🔔 With spirit work, it can truly help to magnify your “calling”. This can range from gently bringing your latest offering to the attention of your friendly neighbourhood house spirit -- all the way to trying to catch the attention of something more. Be mindful, however. As I said, I consider bells pretty powerful tools and a call that’s too loud is not good spirit work practise for the spirit worker’s own sake. It can really help coax something out of hiding if you’re gentle with it, though.

COMMUNING

🔔 Some use bells to mark the beginning and end of a ritual, and I’ve read that in Wiccan practise an altar bell can be used to invoke the Goddess, although as a non-Wiccan, I’ll welcome corrections on that if I’m wrong.

🔔 In my experience, very simple forms of communication via bell work a lot better than anything too complex – “come here” and “stay away” have already been covered, and other than that they can serve as greetings or signals of a start or end of some practise or ritual, the opening or closing of a door, etc.

🔔 They can also serve as a warning or a litmus test regarding spirits, a signalling of your presence and awareness, lack of fear, or willingness to defend -- but be prepared to deal with whatever responses these garner.

BINDING

🔔 Bindings are where you most often see that famous (clockwise) circular motion of the bell, embodying the meaning of the spell. This can be a simple binding to seal a spell or charm or enchantment, or a spirit-binding.

🔔 Personally, spirit-binding is something I do as little as possible simply due to my beliefs holding the autonomy of spirits in very high regard. However, sometimes situations arise that call for it, and I’m aware that not all bindings are unwilling. Far from it -- and some spirits are dangerous when unbound.

🔔 As an animist (believing that all things, including inanimate objects, contain a spirit of their own), I consider gently nudging a spirit back into its physical form a sort of semi-binding, and that can be useful.

I’ll leave you all with a note that I am an urban apartment-dwelling witch through and through, so I understand that we can’t all be jangling away at all hours. I myself have a glass windchime in my front window that makes a distinct but muted sound when disturbed by passers-through, and highly recommend wooden ones also. I also only use my small and relatively quiet suzu bell for my crafting – one given to me by my baba herself.

Lithomancy – the practise of divination through casting stones and reading how they fall – is one of the most ancient and (in my opinion) effective divining methods out there, as well as costing nothing to set up and being something you can completely teach yourself and make your own. I recently went on a trip to an incredible and magical beach where I collected an array of exceptional rocks, pebbles, shells and fossils for this purpose, so I thought I’d make a long post on creating and preparing a kit.

GATHERING

🔮 First of all – they need not be stones, or all be stones, although the name “lithomancy” refers specifically to stones. Some cast with bones, or sticks, or shells. Some cast with whatever the hell they can find at the time. Use whatever speaks to you.

🔮 It will feel more organic to find your stones out in their natural habitat, preferably in a place that you feel a connection with, but it’s okay to purchase. The most important thing is that the set is personalised to you and that each piece of it has been chosen by you, connected to you, for a reason. Even if that reason isn’t immediately clear – it doesn’t have to be yet. Assignation will happen later.

🔮 You should use a level of instinctive guidance to find your casting stones. Perhaps you’ve even been gathering them already, drawn to them and bringing them home with you – don’t rule out stones and bits and bobs already in your possession.

🔮 Take a moment for every potential casting stone you pick up. Hold it in your hand, roll it around, look at it, think on it, get a feel for it. Start to form a picture of what it may contribute to a divination. Keep what you can’t bear the thought of throwing away. Discard everything else.

CLEANSING

🔮 First of all, a physical cleaning. Nothing too harsh – you don’t want to damage the stones or scrub them raw. (For bones and the like though, research and follow good hygiene practises accordingly. Also recommended: the law.) Generally I find a shortish soak in some warm saltwater effective enough. A light sponging to get rid of any mud, sand, etc, if there is any. Apply common sense.

🔮 Then comes the more metaphysical cleansing. Depending on your practise, you could also consecrate or bless them. Some ideas: passing through incense or smoke, cleansing with blessed/spiritually purified or charged water (you could combine this with the physical cleaning), put into a grid with cleansing crystals, using bells/sound, and personally I’ve been using sunlight to cleanse as well as charge mine.

ASSIGNATION

🔮 Set aside some time, fire up the incense, get some mood music on, ground and centre and get yourself in a good headspace. Ideally you’ll also have a nice cleansed and moody space to carry out the assignation process. This will be when you give each of your stones/objects a ‘meaning’, similar to each Tarot card having its own set of meanings and associations, or the runes that some cast. But stones are more free-form and intuitive, and the meanings are discerned and given only by you.

🔮 What you’ll be doing is almost like meditating with each of your stones. Pick up the ones that speak strongly to you first, maybe the ones that you already have some idea of their meaning – these will be the easiest to assign meanings to.

🔮 The physical appearance of the stone is a good starting point. Make sure to have a good inspection of each one. Then, enclose it in your hand and close your eyes. Feel the life inside of the stone and what it says to you. Tell it what its name and meaning is – whisper it aloud into the stone if you must. Make contact. Make sure it’s working in accord with you.

🔮 The easiest way to note down these meanings for you to memorise is to set out a piece of paper or two, and once you know what a stone means, lay it down on the piece of paper and write underneath it the name, meanings and associations. This gives you a sort of physical ‘key.’ Taking a photo of the paper spread/s once it’s done will act as a handy cheat sheet.

🔮 You’ll want a nice, rounded-out set of associations in order to give your divination depth and reach. Some traditions suggest using the different planets (and their associations) for the stones, and other simple suggestions might be elements, deities, past/present/future, etc. There are some out there that suggest a lithomancy set must contain a certain number of stones and they must have certain fixed meanings, but my opinion is that using your own intuition will make it more powerful for you. Plus, most of these traditions I could find were western European in origin, which obviously isn’t where all of our practises are from anyway. Research your traditions or make your own meanings – it’s all down to you.

CHARGING

🔮 There are a ton of resources on charging out there, and you’ll likely learn or already know best what works for you. This is a good, simple post on it for beginners. My favourite method is charging by sunlight, not only because it’s simple but because of how it falls into my belief system too.

🔮 Some suggestions: sunlight, moonlight, starlight, charged crystals and crystal grids, water of various properties (rain, storm, sea), laying out on grass or soil or tree roots or in herb planters, bones (bone grid?) and feathers and such…

PRACTISE

🔮 After taking some time to familiarise yourself with your set and its meanings, it’s time to begin practising. Just chuck ‘em! Start off by doing readings for and about yourself. Get a feel for your set and how it speaks. This is also the time to make adjustments to the meanings of some of the stones, or add new associations.

🔮 You’ll also want to start putting together your pre-divination rituals. A cleanse and a charge, a bit of grounding with incense, a hearty meal, a word with your ancestors? What works for you will become clear with practise.

🔮 In terms of the reading itself: make note of the shape that they have fallen in. The stones that are close together, and the ones that are far apart. Any that line up or form a shape. Some like to use a “self” stone or object that they can use to orient the reading around.

🔮 Some don’t cast all of their stones in one reading – I don’t. You can pick relevant stones for readings that are more specific, or just grab a random handful of stones from a bag and use those. That way, which stones are ‘drawn’ will tell you something all by itself. Change up how you cast and read during your practise period, try every method you can think of. Get creative!

🔮 I don’t think casting stones is good for yes/no answers personally, but did find this quick tip: pick a stone to mean yes/positive, and one to mean no/negative. Pick a ‘self’ stone or object. Cast them. Whichever one lands closest to the ‘self,’ there’s your answer.

🔮 I don’t know if I will, but you may also want to look into creating and incorporating a casting grid. These are shape and charts (usually on cloth) that you can cast upon, and act as a ‘map’ so that stones landing in certain quadrants will let you know what that particular stone is relevant to.

UPKEEP

🔮 Over time you can add to, take away from and generally change up your lithomancy set – what you pick to start off with isn’t the end all, be all. The best divination sets will change and become more attuned to you over time.

🔮 I tie my stones up in a square of batik fabric when not using them, and also use the fabric to cast upon. Simple, neat, effective.

🔮 Remember to keep on cleansing and charging your set as required.

Negative interactions, yes – it’s a natural part of life, I think. Occasionally it’s just bad luck and one stumbles upon something dark, but most of these experiences have come about as a result of my own mistakes or carelessness.

When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, at my school we were all given a project to care for a pet snail in a little portable habitat (we all had these – catching and keeping bugs is a very common hobby where I grew up in rural Japan). Due to my childish thoughtlessness and neglect, my snail unfortunately died while in my care. I felt smotheringly guilty about it after I found it, and I still do sometimes TBH. Seriously, writing this is like confessing one of my darkest sins to the world.

This might sound like over-superstitious mumbo-jumbo… sometimes I wonder how much I believe in this myself… but I worried at the time that the snail’s vengeful ghost had done something as my infant brother came down with chicken pox within a couple of days. And even aside from that, even as a child, I could feel something off with the world and with my internal balance. Sometimes I would sense a putrid rotting smell for no reason at all that nobody else seemed able to smell. My obasan, wonderfully patient teacher and guide that she was to me, assisted me in praying for that poor snail’s spirit to find peace and apologising for my trespasses against it after I brought this concern to her.

And that small example basically set the framework for me in terms of dealing with spiritual negativity in larger ways as I grew older and more experienced. (And it has happened plenty!) Respect and compassion first – to maintain a good relationship with the spiritual world is to remain thoughtful and respectful towards it, and to be highly aware of one’s own actions and capable of taking responsibility for them. That doesn’t mean you can’t stumble into the spiritual corruption of someone else’s mistake – I’ve done that too. If you have the capacity to assist in that case, you must!

As for dangerous, it depends a little bit on what you mean. What was most dangerous to me was when I failed to take care of myself spiritually. When I cast my history and my path aside, grew distant from the divinity of nature and all things. I lost my way and it was exacerbated by mental illness which, at the time, I didn’t know how to adequately cope with. I ended up in a very dark place for a time, cut off and repressed, and it impacted my physical health pretty terribly too. Emotional turmoil has also misguided me from time to time. I’ve made plenty of mistakes.