On vindictive witchcraft:
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Buckle up, folks. This will be my longest article yet. The good news is you can read it in sections (follow the titles). The bad news is you might miss the overarching “big picture” point of it if you do that. The choice is in your hands.
This will stay pinned to my profile, in case any entitled kevins who feel vindictive and *think* they know witchcraft might be lurking.
I used to have an article, specifically, about what can happen to someone who attacks me (straight to the point like that). I ended up deleting it so I could edit it in the background and make it more comprehensive, including also a general guide to navigating the fine print in the terms and conditions of your spellwork when you’re interested in a “witch war”. Here’s the result.
TLDR: Yes, karma is probably a thing, but no, you can’t micromanage anyone’s karma. Yes, witchcraft is a possible road to making justice with your own hands, but no, your idea of justice isn’t the only one the spirits will listen to. Yes, you can attack someone with a spiritual contract if you want, but no, you will probably not have success. None of these rules care about anyone’s feelings.
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact I have already published a series on martial magic and you can read it here.
First of all, an introduction: who am I and why do I know so much about spiritual warfare?
I’m “a spartan”, like the stereotype goes. I was born into it. I learned a whole load by osmosis on how to attack, and have actual experience with how to defend. That’s the short answer. If you want the long answer, keep reading.
You might already have an idea about what a narcissist or sociopath can do when enraged. This topic is trending on Medium, it gets attention, people are into it. Now… Think of a very narcissistic person who is at the same time well-versed in the occult arts. Recipe for a supervillain, right? The sort of thing you’d only read about in fantasy novels aimed at a young adult public.
Let me tell you: reality can sometimes be weirder than fiction. And if you follow me (let me remind you what my name is here on medium: Lucy, the Oracle), you aren’t a total sceptic — but feel free to prove me wrong. I no longer think there’s a limit to human stupidity and entitlement. I’m always free to be surprised.
I won’t tell you my identity that is unrelated to the work here, because it’s none of your business. I don’t even reveal where exactly I grew up; but what you can know is that I wasn’t brought-up Christian — our habit of joining in on church celebrations once a year was merely a façade — in fact I grew up learning about two distinct witchcraft traditions from both of my parents’ heritage: Afro-diasporic and Norse.
When I say “learning about”, I’m giving my background a whole load of grace. It sounds like a quaint scene straight out of Practical Magic where I’d sit on the porch with a book of recipes* surrounded by scented candles, antiques and exotic paraphernalia, studying with the help of a loving mother. LOL. I’m chuckling very hard! I’ll be fully honest instead: I learned most of it against my will, by seeing the warfare unfold between enemy families, choosing not to continue the legacy of that conflict, but dealing with the residual shite nonetheless — a whole bunch more contact with spritual fighting than the average person has.
*It took me a while to notice that “pagan enthusiasts” UNIRONICALLY do not know that traditional folk don’t flaunt their sources of occult wisdom. Some families disguise it as a book of recipes (yes, food) and would never in a million years call it “book of shadows” or draw a pentagram on it — or insert here your chosen stereotype from Hollywood (for the same reason I’m sure you don’t keep your gun — if you own one — unlocked and fully loaded in the middle of your lawn surrounded by big neon signs saying “please use me”). I used to think it would sound patronising if I spelled it out like that, but I’ve come to realise a lot of people are genuinely in the dark. So, here you go. Don’t be falling for the delusion that aesthetic influencers know what they’re doing; Don’t be fooled either that YOU know what you’re doing just because you read easily purchaseable material from the Occult section of a bookshop. Honestly, guys… Let’s be a bit smarter. Don’t make me facepalm this hard.
The above note comes with the caveat that, once again, don’t forget, I am talking about offensive and defensive witchcraft. If you learned genuinely useful rituals and workings for wholesome purposes such as healing, self-care, blessing and so on, and this was in fact available in the literature that doesn’t get censored, I’m not disbelieving you. There are people who don’t even call it “witchcraft”, they just call it folklore — and in fact, in many cases it is folklore. It’s a bunch of lovely, valid, accurate records of tradition I congratulate you for keeping alive. None of that, however, has anything to do with the topic at hand here. Please be mindful of the context, re-read the title of this article, re-read my background info, re-read anything you need to remind yourself that disingenuous derailing comments here will not be tolerated.
There is no holier-than-thou, more-secret-and-mysterious-than-thou energy coming from me here, or anyone else who inherited traditions of witchcraft. You just have to understand that certain things cannot be “made democratic” or openly shared in full because otherwise the immature will get their hands on it and this world will become an even worse place to live in. As things stand, even within the families who hold certain secrets, we already have problems with immature people getting their hands on it (or else I wouldn’t be here telling you my story of growing up under crossfire), so this is already a problem. We don’t want everyone else in the entire planet to also start having this problem, just because a bunch of impressionable kids on the Internet think it would be cool to attack each other and feel relevant for a day. I hope this is clear.
If even after all I said above, you still find me pretentious, maybe take a long hard look at your own ego and examine the reason why you feel so entitled. I’m already sharing what I can in this public place where I have no idea who is reading. And I’m doing so for free, for fuck sake! I could be charging for this. Don’t make me do that. I know my value, allright. What I share for free is simply things I believe nobody who is in genuine need should be kept away from behind a paywall… But this always comes with the unintended consequence of making immature entitled arseholes think I don’t charge because I lack self-esteem so they’re free to disrespect me. No. No, they’re not. I’m not a greedy, Capitalistic pig, to place my value as a person on how much I’m earning for what I put out into the world. And shame on you if you defend that utterly DESPICABLE practice, because this is why our planet is fucked up. I don’t care if you call yourself a friend of mother Earth, I’m talking about internalised bullshit you spiritually bypass into not seeing. Oh, you didn’t like learning that? Well… Next time, keep your childish power games among yourselves and don’t involve me. I only bite if you poke me.
Speaking of entitled attitude…
There’s always a fine line between justice and a sense of entitlement.
This line becomes even finer if you’re too immature to realise that you do not “know it all”. And by maturity, I’m not speaking of age. In fact, the old people who parade their knowledge like a peacock are the most likely to have the mental age of a toddler… Because if it’s a teenager, it is age-appropriate and makes sense; But if it’s coming from middle aged people who should know better, I don’t have to give them any grace.
I’ll link to this for the zillionth time:
…Because I’m sure people read the title, see the first part and go like “oh, I get the message”. No, you fucking don’t. It’s not my fault OR Natalie’s fault you have the attention span of a goldfish. I share this video and other long material when I consider them relevant but I’m under no illusion that I’m dealing with Academics — only, at most, the frustrated kind. The “I know so much more than you” crowd to whom I always reply, “well, maybe you should be on Jstor then and not here. Oh, you got rejected? Awww”.
I’m telling you. There’s a limit to the bullshit I can take. Don’t make me go off.
Here are two of my favourite quotes from the above video:
This morality of resentment, of impotent and permanently frustrated revenge judges that power is evil. (…) Of course it’s good to be aware of your privilege — especially as a leader — but let’s not be so self-effacing that we efface ourselves off the face of the Earth. This is the self-sabotage of resentment values: if you think power is evil, then you’ve given up on the ambition to acquire any power, which virtually guarantees your political irrelevance. Like MLK said, you have to at least have some power to implement the demands of justice.
And
Ideology of Resentment: a discourse that outwardly appears as moral or political critique, but which on examination, is mainly just a resentful moan. The goal of resentment politics is not to improve conditions… In fact, the resentful person is full of contempt for any “morally compromised sell-outs” who are attempting to enact plausible reform.
I’m literally transcribing some of what the video says which goes hand in hand with my main point in this article. Otherwise, people’s tendency is to either ignore it because they didn’t watch in full, OR pretend not to have watched it in full in order to run away from a point that might be hitting a bit too close to home.
The last time I shared this video in private with someone else, the person preferred to overlook all the political theory in it (which was relevant to our topic of discussion) and instead took it to a personal place where, in her paranoia, I was “accusing her of being envious against me”. Oh, of course, because I totally have a petty card up my sleeve every time I’m in a very friendly, unproblematic conversation about politics with someone whose views align with mine. Like, I have literally nothing else to do with my free time other than obsess over the friends I already have and whether they secretly hate me or not. Sure.
Projecting insecurities much? See, this is why I’ve given up making friends with INFJ. I’m straight-up discriminating now. If you’re that type, you have to lie about your type for me to stay on your life from now on. (I’m half-kidding).
The anecdote above is just so my readers here understand that if they’re gonna make a low effort and jump straight to assumptions, I would rather they get out of my blog and go elsewhere — I don’t know, Buzzfeed maybe.
So… what does justice (and envy disguising as justice, for that matter) have to do with witchcraft?
Unbeknownst to the white, privileged, middle-class from “developed” countries who might occasionally develop a taste for the occult arts just to try and impress each other in what can only be described as a Mean-Girls-playing-out-in-real-life context… Offensive spells and rituals actually started out as a weapon of the enslaved class against the rich landlords who held them captive.
Yes, that’s right, 17-year-old suburban Kayleigh. What you call “unevolved magic practiced by people who will get their karma” started as a revolutionary, political movement. But I’m sure you grew up sheltered enough to believe that the only valid kind of political activism is the one where you you speak of rewilding yourself and spread generic platitudes like “loving kindness” on Instagram reels shot in a quaint little cottage.
I’m sure many revolts of the oppressed, including one that might be dear to your heart — the fall of the Bastille — were carried out by the power of “loving kindness” alone. Of course. There’s a musical about it and all.
Let’s sing along:
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of wholesome men
It is the music of the people you can step on if you want ‘cause we have so much to lose and are afraid to go to hell. Let’s sit in silence and pretend all is going weeeeell
No, wait. Wrong time period. Medieval. That one is medieval. But English hadn’t been invented yet — damn it.
(It does fit into the metrics though. I’m low-key proud)
I mean, in the end of the day, white privileged activism is valid, and I’m not saying any of that is bad. Quite on the contrary: where would we be if privileged people DIDN’T acknowledge that it’s bad to continue the legacy of their ancestors? I would much prefer a future where privileged people are all being hippies. Any day! I’m just bringing to light the irony that hides beneath the surface there. After all, black people don’t have as much freedom to speak of “rewilding” themselves without it coming with the subtext of years upon years of blackface cartoons comparing them with literal animals (which is precisely why this influencer exists — to undo some of the damage). Or am I wrong? Am I saying anything people aren’t aware of?
There is awareness, allright — But there isn’t putting yourselves on other people’s shoes for a while and getting out of this self-centered “justice only where it makes ME AND MINE comfortable” discourse. That is what’s up. Nobody wants to admit they inherited privilege from villains of the past (even though they, themselves, are not villains, and can very well have very real problems).
So, think long and hard before assuming I am somehow “unevolved” or “not good enough of a Buddhist” just because I DARE talking about social justice. Don’t make me remind you of how Buddhism itself started. Or do you think Buddha is bald as a fashion statement? “Oh but Buddha teaches us to renounce our vanity and other desires of the ego” — Yes, he does, but let’s not forget Siddhartha Gautama was A PRINCE. There’s a difference between A LITERAL PRINCE renouncing his status, vs… Idk… middle-class suburban Susan from a long line of well-established white citizens telling Angela, a black girl whose parents are descended from freed slaves and live paycheck to paycheck that “too much ambition does not bring good karma”.
Motherfucker.
Some people do in fact need to keep their ambition in check, but other people need to be compensated instead. Not every karma is created equal. It’s a pity, I know, I wish it was, but unfortunately — not sure you’ve heard of that — we have a thing called the aftermath of Colonialism. It “might” have come from the fact past actions have a ripple effect on the present generations. Who would have thought?
I mean, sure, you could assume if you want that I’m accusing white privileged SJW people of being “‘morally compromised sell-outs’ who are attempting to enact plausible reform”, like Natalie says in her video… IF AND ONLY IF I was accusing their Instagram activism of not being good enough… But I’m not. I said it’s valid and will repeat. I support it. In fact, I show my support any chance I get… But a lot of these people whose activism is getting supported by me do not return the favour whenever I talk about anything that doesn’t concern them — racism for example. In fact they close their ears, close their eyes, and pretend I didn’t say or share anything; Or alternatively, comment with attacks on my character or policing my tone or [insert silencing strategy here] because if it isn’t THEIR cause, it doesn’t deserve attention. Leftist narcissism, aye?
You see, this is where it becomes a little complicated for this crowd to dismiss me and at the same time make sense. But who knows, maybe they think they make sense in their own echo-chamber? Here’s a video by a different philosopher about phantasms.
Now that we’ve addressed the elephant in the room, and everyone is either uncomfortable, excited, or every strong emotion in-between, let’s talk about magic.
What drives witchcraft? Is it learned and learnable?
You see, I didn’t just provoke you first to ensure you would read my rant about racism (although, point taken, that was part of the reason)… It was actually, first and foremost, for a different reason altogether. A reason I like to call experiential awareness; What psychologists describe as “learning through experience instead of through study a priori”. Or in pop-psychology terms, “the Se function that INFJs struggle with”. (It’s not my fault they are so many in my life. I’m literally ignoring a bunch as I write this article).
Consider this my first truly in-depth lesson in witchcraft, made available here totally for free. It will let you access that elusive thing witches call “intent” — a thing that alone, achieves nothing; But without it, even the fanciest tools and rituals will get you nowhere.
You know the feeling you got when reading the first part of my article? I bet it was a strong one — whether positive or negative. Sit with it.
What does it say? Where does it feel on your body? Maybe it’s telling you to type a reply to this article. Okay, do that if you want. Send it, even. But please return to this exercise here. I promise it’s worth it.
Some people use this “felt sense” as a tool for introspection. It’s very effective, and I didn’t know it could be used that way until recently. But that’s not the point of our exercise here. What I’d like you to try, instead, is hold it where it is, as if you were accessing it to put on a shelf somewhere inside you. It will dissolve eventually (it always does. It’s never permanent), and as I already said, on its own this exercise is pointless. That’s because you’re not making your feeling any bigger (in fact, you can’t make it bigger when you’re turning towards it like that. It only gets smaller), or any more harmful (or helpful — if it’s positive) than it would already be if you just experienced it normally.
But you are achieving an important thing: the act of adding intent to a feeling that came up, just because it came up, without conceptualising it.
You need this intent in order to make any piece of witchcraft work. Hence what I always say: you can’t accidentally attack, and can’t accidentally be attacked. Unless, of course, you’re a bit sheltered and don’t know what I mean by “attack” in this context. It’s not the same as manipulating someone to feel a certain feeling — that’s called manipulation and can be achieved with words by total atheists. Nothing witchy about it.
If you haven’t ever suffered a psychic attack (and most people haven’t. Especially not by strangers who A- don’t know and can’t “track” you, B- have no beef against you, and C- couldn’t be arsed to gather all the necessary energy and materials to make as much as a basic attempt), maybe it will be hard to imagine what an attack really feels like… But consider yourself fortunate. Long story short, it’s utterly ridiculous to accuse anyone of witchcraft “just because, maybe, perhaps, by chance, I don’t know… I have a nagging feeling this person is not the kindest”.
No. Stop right there. When you’re attacked, YOU KNOW. And you know by whom even if you don’t literally see or hear them. 100% of the cases.
Same when you’re blessed. In fact, this is more common (thankfully!). Think “long-dead friend of the family who visits you in a dream and gives you information only your parents knew about”, and you have a great time, wake up feeling energised, deeply touched and maybe a little nostalgic. Yup. That’s a blessing and fits into what could be considered “witchcraft” — although, as I already said and will repeat, not everyone calls it that word. I’m using the word as a technical term to explain a mechanism. Don’t lecture me lol
Now that I didn’t just tell you, BUT ALSO SHOWED YOU, how anyone has what it takes (otherwise there would be no point in keeping information secret)… Let’s move on to lineages.
Is there blood in the mix?
I mentioned families and close relations and a bunch of similar stuff here and there. If you’re really clever, you might have realised there can be a controversial topic lurking under the surface here: DNA.
So, a short answer to the question is I have no idea.
Long answer:
I don’t know the influence genetic material can have on anyone’s ability to work magic. It’s definitely something to consider, but no conclusion has ever been reached for definite as to the extent or the reason. For all we know, it could just be like dark skin — you inherit it, but you can also cause those genes to “turn on” over several generations if your descendants live in the tropics long enough (we’re animals after all. We’re not immune to that whole survival of the fittest thing).
For all it’s worth, there is no inbreeding going on in most cases where a random person discovers a talent for the occult arts AND later on finds out their great-great-great-great grandmother twice removed used to “work as a healer” or fortune teller [or insert here façade professions for genuine witchcraft in the past. No I won’t talk about the validity and accuracy of witch trials, this article is too fucking long already, but hang on there, in the future I might].
Weird Romanian traditions aside, I’m not buying this idea of “keeping witch blood pure”, because first of all what does that even mean?! That something as primitive and natural as witchcraft can get diffused out of our genes just because we marry and have kids with each other? We’re all human for heaven’s sake. Ain’t no chimeras with a natural genetic disadvantage for witchcraft walking among us as far as I’m aware. Secondly… if it really was true that the potential we carry in our genes can dissolve when foreign DNA joins the family, where does that place me? Where does that place so many other people whose immediate relations were only half, at best, “genetically linked to a witch” and nonetheless developed without a bother just like a supposed pure-blood would?
Maybe what is more likely (and this is just an educated guess, to take with a grain of salt) is the possibility that some people get the misguided perception that their link to a supposed “witch line in the family” is coming from DNA, when in fact it’s simply coming from an old spirit trying to reconnect with them, build rapport, and teach some cool stuff. This is similarly to when you learn music because there are musicians in the family, but someone who comes from a family of utterly unartistic engineers can still learn to play the goddamn violin as long as they put time and effort into it.
…But people don’t like to entertain that possibility as much as they like to think about scientific stuff like blood and DNA because deep down we live in a materialistic society with a deeply-seated taboo around the idea of death, where the invisible forces aren’t valued as much as what our five senses perceive. Modern man is just like cavemen who would be slave to sensations and find it more difficult to pay attention to sophisticated thought and metaphysics. Ooga-booga back to you.
When does “retribution” cross the line towards “never-ending feuds”?
When does your retaliation or revenge (both are the same thing except for timing) to “teach somebody a lesson” or “make justice with your own hands” become pointless?
The answer isn’t as simple as it might seem, but it’s not so complicated that “each case is a case” either.
The rule of thumb, in my understanding, is that “justice served” becomes too much when the person serving justice becomes a slave to their own ego. So, for instance, you’re well into a 30-year-long feud against somebody who wronged you in the distant past, because the person keeps retaliating back and “you can’t let this last attack go unaddressed”.
Yes, you can. You just don’t wanna, because you can’t keep your ego under control to save your life. This isn’t about “who wins in the end”, because each side is going to have allies anyway and will go on to tell their own version of the story. So in a way, on the long term, both will “win”. This isn’t even about “who will be considered the hero by total strangers who hear the story in the future” because, in case you didn’t notice, unless someone ends up achieving a Hitler level of fucked-up, History also always ends up having two equally interesting sides. (Yes, even when one is told by “the Establishment”, since that is very fertile grounds for rebellious movements to pop up under the radar, who gather to “read the forbidden books”).
So, fear not, your side will be celebrated by someone down the line — or, most likely, a bunch of someones — regardless of who won or lost the famous last battle. To be quite frank, sometimes the side who DID NOT win gets celebrated more widely (shall I remind you of the Jacobites?).
The key is not to pretend you don’t have an ego (or you’ll forever stay irrelevant and powerless in a world where most people aren’t exactly what I would call “enlightened”). The key is, instead, to USE your ego instead of letting it USE YOU. It’s saying “yes” to an initial retribution that will teach people a lesson *and* win you some well-deserved place under the sun… But “no” to a never-ending continuation of the conflict just because this detail or that detail is still unaddressed.
Ya know… it’s similar to the difference between indulgence and addiction.
The case for eventually letting each other be.
There’s another — WAY less comfortable — reason why we should think very carefully before continuing spiritual warfare ad infinitum: if we keep it going too long, we are putting a stop to the evolution of everyone involved.
By evolution, I don’t just mean it in a twee newage sense. I mean impermanence of literally any state of being. When do we stop changing and transforming? — When we die. And I would argue, not even then, because the body will decompose and the soul will move on. That’s change.
The point is: change is the natural state of the world. To go against it is foolish at best, and an offense against greater powers at worst. Nothing lasts forever, not even your hatred for someone, and not even your love for someone. If any particular feeling seems permanent (especially resentment, which is borne out of arrogance, of thinking “I am the best, I know more than anyone else, how dare lessons come my way, I have nothing new to learn”)… Perhaps it only feels that way because YOU are afraid of change and don’t want to admit it. You want security. Permanence. Nostalgia. A feeling of forever being comfy and held. But let’s be real here: if that was truly possible, it wouldn’t actually be good for you or even feel good. Your muscles would stop working — when you don’t move, when you’re “just held” and stay in that position, your body responds accordingly, doesn’t it? (Take it as metaphorically as you can).
When you go against nature to THAT extent… You lose. Straight-up. And some people stay arrogant and misinterpret their defeat as “another retaliation” when in fact it’s just Nature telling you “oh my god will you just move on already”.
Worse, still: sometimes you insist in attacking someone who has a spiritual contract with a specific “part” of Nature, a well-known higher power… And you assume you can win? How does that work? How does somebody get to the point where they confidently tell themselves, “yes, I, a mere human being, stand a chance against A GOD and his human servant? I will steal the person back to be mine and only mine”? What the actual fuck.
Some positions, such as trying to freeze things in time, are indefensible. I’m sorry, but they are. Ain’t nothing redeemable about them. You’re literally trying to go against karma when you do that (yes, karma in the original Eastern sense. Both good and bad) because you’re trying to put a stop to the very idea of change. One does not need to be a mystic to understand how wrong that is.
Luckily for you (if you identify with this last case, somewhat), change is the natural state of life. If you move on from this vindictiveness, soon enough you can reach good things for yourself too — whether I love it or hate it, even though I have been wronged by this kind of person.
You see, natural “law” (if you can even call it that) does not pick sides. It simply is.
