A Kingdom Gone, My Sweet Carcosa

Specifically consider the following:

jinxes

hexes

curses

bindings

banishings

cleansings

Shitpost version: Girl from Teen Titans or Arcane.

Hexes: More intentional, tend to be made for negative consequences on a target. Short to longer lived, the duration depends on purpose and strength.

What Is: Wanda's power in the 2000s animated X-Men.

Curses: Longer lived, generally to introduce negative consequences on a specific target. However, curses can very from a very strong three days to a more mild lifelong effect, for instance.

Alternatively, a swear word.

Bindings: Time varies based on purpose. Also, neutral. Lasts as long as the binding needs to, but can be deflected or reversed.

Shitpost: Book spines.

Banishings: Sometimes a more powerful cleansing. Neutral. More energy intensive, might take actual tools and a ritual.

"Well, don't let me keep ya."

Cleansing: Simple, meant to be quick and instantaneous. Minimal effects.

"I'm a Virgo, I need to go organize something".

----

I'm scrolling further and... oh my god? Oh my god. Actually holy shit. The subscription model is exactly what I feared it was going to be. You can already subscribe via their website (finally, considering that they've been baiting people via spambots in our tags for two months) and make a whole account.

I'm seeing shit about... affiliate programs...? Oh, hell, no.

Meanwhile, I didn't get a single email about these developments despite signing up for them (with a dummy email). Hmm. There's no more early-bird signup thing, either. It's all been replaced with generic astrology info.

WEEK?

And a variety of token prices for astrology reads:

Based on the Terms & Conditions, I'll bet you can buy more "Moons" in bundles to access more features. How frustrating would it be to receive an even number of tokens and then end up only a few tokens shy of the Next Thing you want? Oooo you could just buy the small package of 50 more tokens just to bridge the gap. Oh, but then you've got an uneven number and not quite enough for the Next Thing...

This editing error where it was changed to black instead of blank, showing that no one actually fucking read through this book to edit it.

Section of note: A card a day. This practice is described later in this chapter. Dedicate a section to recording your daily pulls and insights. Begin with a black sheet of paper. Write your question on the top of the paper: "What do I need to know today?"

It was obviously meant to say blank rather than black.

This passage which made me go "girl, what?"

Section of note: Reading for pregnant women is something to consider before an expectant mother shows up in front of your cards. Are you willing to say or show something that could frighten a woman who is soon to be in the hospital? Consider the power of suggestion. The image of the Death card can be terrifying to one unfamiliar with its nuanced meaning. Do not run the risk of frightening or stressing out a pregnant woman. Avoid it altogether. Would you really want to bear the weight of responsibility for a woman in her last trimester to see the Eight or Nine of Swords or something equallly spooky that she might internalize? I have made it a personal rule to never read for a pregnant woman and highly advise you to do the same.

Honestly the section below it about drugs and alcohol is equally cringe-worthy but I was so fucking baffled by "cards may scare pregnant women" that I didn't even process the next paragraph.

And finally, the thing that broke me once and for all, the part where the author says to just remove scary cards from the deck because they might scare your querents.

Section of note: Remove scary cards if they freak you out. Tarot should not feel frightening. If something bothers you, remove it until you are ready to integrate it. You might consider removing scary cards when reading tarot for the public. Remove the Death card when reading for strangers since people tend to take that card at face value. You never know who is going to walk up or what experience or assumptions they hold about tarot cards. What if an eleven-year-old with a sick mother walks up to your table and pulls the Death card? Do you want to be responsible for putting that image in a child's mind? There is no right or wrong answer, but it is something for you to consider.

I love how she says "there's no right or wrong answer" after giving you instructions and leading you to what she obviously thinks is the right answer.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨

a little observation post because everyone seems to obsess over their big three, but honestly, it's usually the placements no one talks about that are ruling the entire chart.

• your moon sign is doing more work than your sun ever has. like… your sun is who you are on paper, but your moon is who you are at 1am when no one's watching in your room and what you're doing EXACTLY. the way you self-soothe, the way you panic, the foods you crave when you're sad, it's all moon. people will date your sun and then break up with your moon hehe.

• your mercury runs your relationships more than your venus does, and nobody talks about this. you can have the sweetest venus in the world but if your mercury can't communicate it, it doesn't land. the way you text, the way you argue, the way you go quiet, that's the placement people actually experience. though the REASON why you broke up, could be your venus' and mercury's fault.

• your rising sign is literally your face. like the energy people pick up in the first three seconds before you've said anything. it's also why two people with the same sun sign can feel completely different in a room. though I can always spot a sagittarius rising in a room.

• your chart ruler (the planet that rules your rising) is honestly the main character of your chart and most people don't even know which one is theirs. if your rising is taurus, your venus is running everything. if your rising is scorpio, your mars and pluto are basically co-piloting your life. it explains so much once you find it. and once you'll figure it out (or ask me to do it), focus on those exact planets more, they literally rule your entire chart to begin with.

• your saturn placement is the thing you're quietly insecure about but also the thing you'll become weirdly excellent at by your thirties. it's the area of life where you feel behind for years and then suddenly everyone's asking you for advice about it.

• your moon's house placement tells you where you emotionally live. like literally, 4th house moons need a home base, 7th house moons need a person, 11th house moons need their friends, 12th house moons need to disappear for a week every so often. it's not personality, it's emotional infrastructure.

• your venus sign is less about who you love and more about how you want to be loved. and most people are out here giving their partners venus-in-their-own-sign love instead of venus-in-their-partner's-sign love, which is why everyone feels slightly unseen idk.

• your mars is the placement that exposes you the fastest. how you flirt, how you fight, how you chase, how you give up. you can fake every other placement in your chart but your mars shows up the second you want something. ESPECIALLY if it rules your chart.

• your 12th house placements are the things you don't even know you're doing. they're the patterns other people notice about you before you do. it's the most honest part of your chart and also the part you have the least access to, which is so cruel of the universe honestly!

• and your north node? that's the placement that feels uncomfortable on purpose. it's the version of you that you're growing into, which is why it feels like wearing someone else's clothes for most of your twenties.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨

honestly half the people i read for come in asking about their sun sign and leave realizing their entire life makes sense because of one placement they'd never heard of ♡

reading slots are open btw, birth charts, synastry, composite and the price list is in my pinned for anyone who wants to dig through their own chart first!

They told you that Lilith was banished from the Garden of Eden. But they lied.

Lilith is the most controversial of all Jewish figures — and for good reason.

For six years, Jewitches has held her as a no-go topic due to the death threats and bigotry that resulted upon speaking up…but no longer.

Shay's $20 readings are open!

I've gotten some unfortunate financial news in the past week so I'm trying to open a few streams of revenue.

I'll pull as many cards as I need to from between two and four decks to answer your question. No card limits.

I will not answer:

- Legal questions

- Health questions

The majority of witchy stuff I’ve read has made claims that, if true, would be possible to scientifically prove. So why hasn’t this happened? (I understand that magic works in mysterious ways and such, but surely we could test the effectiveness of, say, a particular spell, by clearly outlining the goals and having a bunch of people cast it and also a control group and see if the casters are more likely to get the desired outcome)

I think @creature-wizard or @asksecularwitch might be able to explain it better (I just emerged from 22 hours of no power and. it was bad.) but the short snappy answer I'm gonna give is that the way they portray it isn't how it actually works, if and when it does work.

Personally, I'm not a person who cares much for scientific verification of my practice, so I just generally ignore the people who make a big fuss about it.

Sorry this doesn't help much anon, hopefully one of the people I pinged has written about this before.

The Personal Experimentation The Group Experimentation

What this Anon is going for seems to be "why can't everyone do spellwork the same way" (because let's move away from the word magic here because my definition of magic is the amount of xyz [energy here is also a weird definition, because I also define it as amount of work, but also what does that mean in this context, right?]

First, let's ask the question what spell would they be doing and are the conditions in which the spell is being done repeatable? Let's talk about conditions in terms of being able to repeat first. So I have mentioned it before that I believe spell casters are all different and bring different things to a spell casting. So the literal spell caster cannot be isolated for. Additionally, I don't think a control group (spell casters versus .... ???) exists in this particular situation per se because I believe anyone can perform spellwork - you don't have to be a Spell Caster (tm) to cast a spell. Anyone can. So that's one vector of change within the experiment is the literal people (and we can group all things of the people, like beliefs, experience, preference, etc into that). Can we get x number of people to do all the same actions, on the same time frame? Sure. Can we get x number of people to all do the same paradigm (the way the spell works) at the same time? Much more tricky. So spellwork in terms of the literal actions in a spell can be the same across different kinds of spells. What do I mean: So a person takes a sip from a cup. So a person takes a sip from a cup.

So a person takes a sip from a cup. First person takes the sip because they are thirsty. Second person takes a sip because the water is purified and is part of a cleansing ritual. Third person takes a sip from a cup because it's enchanted moon water and it's going to bring them protection.

Paradigms work like this -^ the reasoning behind an action so that something else will occur (whatever the something else is), the purpose of an action or a set of actions. So let's make that the break down portion for the Control and the Main group. Get everyone onboard with the "hey we are all casting this spell because of xyz" and then the control group just goes through the motions. Now it doesn't quite matter what the Control group is up to in terms of paradigms right? But it could very well have polluted results because what if someone in the Control group has the exact paradigm that the others do. It will skew the results. SO you have to spend time understanding each individual again to ensure that the you have a clear paradigm. And no - not "well just use skeptics" because being a skeptic and disbelief in spellwork is part of a paradigm. I know I said wrapping all the individual up into their personhood included beliefs, but this is why I cut that off at the top of the post. For this exact reason.

So we are back to individual scale on these kinds of experiments. Which is extremely annoying to do for any kind of large scale proving situation. Additionally, this presumes another thing - the spell will always work for everyone and anyone performing it (or should for the ones with the paradigm). Which is just not true. Again people bring their baggage into the casting, it could be literally someone who casted a spell on them to disrupt their efforts, etc. It could be that person pissed off a spirit last week and that spirit is actively following them and working against them. Spells never work 100% of the time. I believe that very strongly, and I think anyone who is telling you there is a 100% success rate is trying to convince you of greatness. You can't even get 100% perfection on throwing balled up papers to the trash can - why would spells be the same? But let's move on to another measurement in what kind of spell are we choosing. How would you measure success as well? How can you measure a protection spell? How can you measure a luck spell? How can you measure a monetary spell? A job application spell?

The measuring the outcome of the spell is also extremely difficult and can be subjective. So now you need to figure out what is a threshold of success - which might be used for the Control group who also would have some level of subjectivity. At what point would you consider a spell successful on the individual level, at what point would you consider a spell successful on the group level? You'd need a lot of survey and other concrete data points to really focus in.

I tend to stick with the "did it do the thing it was casting for?" as my success matrix because like I said, it's extremely subjective. So I try to remove the subjectivity.

So that leads to experiments that have very specific notions, days, amounts, or things. Like the Cobblah spell - which has a 7 day timeframe but honestly, fails for most people except that it haunts their days and weeks and months afterwards (still a failure for a spell, but an interesting spirit component when thinking about interacting with that post). Now I have worked this exact same spell format with a day count successfully mostly every other time, for things like bills (usually have a concrete due date), or things I am owed or for other food items. But cobblah be damned on the 7 days time limit. How to craft a spell that forces the limits on a specific things which can make for measuring easier? It takes a really good spell crafter and even then it's not perfect. Because how are you going to get peaches to places where they don't even grow or are extremely expensive, it could turn into a Peach Cobblah candle instead of a peach cobblah itself (another failure, in my mind). Though I have some thoughts here about spellwork, working no matter what conditions based entirely on the fact that you cast it because that's my natural paradigm (The only truly failed spell, is the one uncast).

But all of this is at a level of rigor that objectively would be accepted by science. There probably even more rigor that would be added to this experiment that isn't fully covered here. But my point is to exemplify it's more than just simply gathering people up to a common goal and then seeing it works out.

Like we could go with a blind study (how to make it a double blind where the people conducting it are also not aware is boggling), but then we could test the opposite because it's easier for a blind study - for instance, a "spell" (a series of actions) that isn't a spell, and also not tell people it's a spell. And make up a story and then have people mimic the actions together and measure how much of their life maybe has changes in specific areas while surveying them for all things.

But again, anyone can cast any spells. But also, anything can become a spell.

So what happens if the not a spell turns into a spell.

There's plenty of people turning not a spells into spells.

This is where we kind of land in the building of this large scale experiment. We struggle with the structure of the experiment, identifying our groups, the measurement of the success, and the actual thing we are testing. Additionally, science dislike working in what they view as the religious or spiritual aspects of things (like why don't we measure how prayer works, for example) because it brings some level of weird repetition and people cherry pick studies that might have ethical issues for reasons beyond just providing something works.

This is why I only discuss experimentation and setting up experiments for spellwork in the individual case. It simplifies across the board. Because it doesn't matter what we are doing we can make that entire prospect an individual focus, we can throw out things and move forward.

It does mean that it's not replicatable at scale. It means you have to rely on First person accounts of things. Which - is a different kind of science's bread and butter. Which is why you should listen to those individuals talking to you about such things, because it is their First Person account. And then we can go from there to make larger assessments. "But everyone says spells work, how have they proved it?" - is, in my opinion, exclusively denying First Person accounts as valid. "but they could be lying!!" -stamps foot, whining face-

Accusing people of lying off the bat or at minimum, assuming they are lying, definitely helps to give you an objective stance so craved for in science right? It definitely doesn't make you cherry pick things to reach into what's the word, the bias of the situation?

This is why I bypass all of that. Do a spell. Any single.

Here's one: https://www.llewellyn.com/spell.php?spell_id=10076

"but it has spirits in it!!!!" -stamping foot and whining louder-

It shouldn't matter? Right? This is a liar's creation, there should be no effects including Psychological, right? (because there are people who have paradigms in the psychological).

So. Do it.

I genuinely encourage people to do spellwork all the time. I also experiment with different kinds of spells. It's why my perspective tends to be a little more loosey goosey about what defines a spell. Is matches and a mirror and a chant and a stone a spell? Yeah. Yeah it is. But not to everyone.

But honestly, the only way we can really get good results about how spells are is if we talk about them. The blogging about spells in general, the thinking about types of spells, and the doing them. I totally appreciate the desire for a 'hard science' approach (I say that with some level of eye roll) - but for things where we are studying people and studying how people do things, why don't we lean on the "soft" science methodology.

Every single one of my blog posts on spellwork is a first person account. Every one that I reblog on someone else's is a third person or second person account where I am showing you things I saw from other people. And all of that matters.

Now I do recommend that people when starting spells do, luck, money, or protection spells.

But that's not always how people first come to spellwork. They come to it by way of finding "something" that is ailing them and look for spellwork to solve it.

So, that's why I say find a random one. Just know if it don't work - it could be hundreds of reasons including the spell sucks! One of which is some spells just hang around because they never can complete because the original conditions casted for have just disappeared. I have this one spell that's been following me for almost 14 years. :) I see it's touches every so often while it tries to solve for the casting I did. That's my personal account.

But if you think I'm lying for the clout - then it doesn't matter what I said in my personal account for how long a spell lasts, or what it's defined as, or how I got to it in the first place.

That's why I said Welcome to the First Person account. Do the spell, tell us how it went.

You have to interact with literature and media that isn't within your own echo chamber.

You need regular confrontations with opinions and ideas outside your own bubble otherwise you. will. not. grow.

You must be able to read things critically, knowing that picking up a book and reading it does not equal you believing every word.

Learn about how others view the world, learn how people's beliefs work, learn how to intake information without assuming that every bit of information is on a binary of "good" or "bad" information.

Elias, it/its.

My question is: “What am I missing?” I suppose it is more in terms of spirituality/religion, there’s a hint of daily life drawing my doubts again. I feel like I've asked this question too many times and I'm unable to understand the answer, so I thought a second opinion would help.

With a deck from your “Typically Not Used” section.

Thank you, have a lovely day.

~🦑

Hey Elias, welcome back to the ask box! For you, I have selected the Unstable Unicorns game from that section. Your card is the yellow Basic Unicorn.

This card is exactly what it looks like: a yellow unicorn with flowers in its hair telling you to dance like nobody's watching. Ultimately, going back to the basics or simplifying things can help. Check the foundation, rebuild the base, and make something joyful that you actually want to interact with or live within.

Overall, a pretty short reading. I hope it helps out in some way, Elias. If you feel so inclined, please feel free to send feedback in my ask box, leave feedback in a reblog of this reading, and/or reblog my reading guidelines!

Everything's become a hustle, or there's an excessive need for it to be perfect. The fun and joy that could have been there dissipated.

I wrote 1,000+ words on something a couple of months ago, something just for me, and haven't touched it since.

I need to learn the process again (go back to basics), see the rot nourish fresh sprouts, and remember why I started it all.

----

I'm curious as to what a "conpantheon" is exactly, how did you develop it?

No rush to answer, please use this ask as a way to start talking about it if it would help.

Have a lovely day.

~Elias 🦑

HIIII! conpantheon stands for "constructed pantheon" – it is usually, but not always, used to refer to a pantheon of created by the worshiper (usually one and not multiple people) entities. it's sometimes also called do-it-yourself deity/spirit. sometimes but not often conpantheon refers to a pantheon where you are just making your own pantheon of deities not created by you, but i use it in the former here

the easiest way to describe it is make an original character. worship them. tada, do-it-yourself deity/spirit!

my conpantheon is the Court of Stars. they're based heavily off of the constellations, with the twelve zodiacs being the "head", making the Twelve Monarchs that rule the realms.

i typically look at things like astrology beliefs for the Twelve Monarchs, mythos about the namesake, and also just sprinkle in fun stuff to make them more unique for me.

the planets and moons make minor spirits, such as Mercury being The Messenger of the Heavens. asteroids and stuff are included, as are other important celestial bodies like the North Star, Polaris

the Twelve Monarchs are the Firstborn Aries through the Twelfthborn Pisces, and the Thirteenthborn Ophiuchus is the Usurper and a very adversarial spirit.

i usually work primarily with the Twelve Monarchs at my base and other constellations another step down, and the planets, moons, and etc as the bottom rung of the ladder.

Ophiuchus is an interesting part of the pantheon because i made It to be adversarial! the idea was that the first Twelve (Gemini is counted as one despite being the Brother and Sister) earned their spots as Monarchs through birthright... but Ophiuchus was the final born and earned nothing for being too late. so It tried to overtake the heavens themselves and exert Itself as the one ruler over them all... but was ultimately defeated. now Ophiuchus works as an adversarial entity that causes havoc and strife and is more meant to be appeased than worshiped.

why would i do this? because it's fun. why not. i do what i want it's my pantheon

now as for some other stuff? i generally believe the Court of Stars exists on its own separate of me at this point. my creation of them was step one, my belief was step two, and my worship (or appeasement in the case of Ophiuchus) was step three, and now they've been "born" and do their own things, but still generally bound by me and my creation. which is why i would have to be co-authors with someone in order to feel comfortable with another person working with them lol, because otherwise that feels like way too much power

they're ever growing and ever changing as i change up lore and stuff, but i generally never stray too far from the original intention and vision... if i wanted to go 180°, i feel it'd be better to just make a new diy spirit rather than change up a previous one. which is just a me stance

Date of posting: June 3, 2026.

Heads up to my fellow Ko-Fi users!! There's a known phishing scam going around. The scammers are sending messages via commission messages. They're claiming that the account has been suspended and won't be able to receive payments until information is verified. They then provide a link to follow to "fix" the issue.

Do not click that link!! It will steal your information and possibly your money. Block the sender and delete the message. If you're concerned that your account has actually been compromised because you clicked a link sent to you, send a ticket to the real Ko-Fi support team and change the passwords on Ko-Fi and all connected accounts.

(Also, it seems like Ko-Fi is getting a lot of traffic right now, probably because of this latest blast of phishing attempts. Stay calm. Your account is fine. Only send a ticket if you filled out a suspicious form; and if you did click or fill out something suspicious, make sure you change all of the passwords on your Ko-Fi and all attached accounts.)

Since I'm me, let's take a closer look at the message, how this phishing scam is meant to work, and how you can spot these yourself in the future: