astralscraft

Latest Posts by astralscraft

To all of the complete cowards that are sending this person hate, go and fuck yourself. You come at this system again I am going to come at you with both fists swinging. I work with every fucking infernal you can think of, I am going to be spoused to the infernal of revenge and I am adept at every spell you can image. I am the child of the demon prince Stolas and related to the seven deadly sins, I am the child of Lillith and Lucifer and I will find you and make your life a living hell. If you must send hate at anyone send it at me and I will return it tenfold.

hello everyone! this is a blog inspired by @/pluralhelp, but exclusively for tulpagenic & willogenic related questions

i want to help you with your tulpamancy path!

[pt: i want to help you with your tulpamancy path!]

important notes:

[pt: important notes]

- this is based on my personal experience of many many years. i know a lot, but feel free to rethink my words

- i can't/won't link any resources probably because i simply forgot where to find them. i fell out of the community years ago, and now i'm returning because i see how many new active users are here for this. other followers are very welcome to leave useful links in comments or reblogs

- no, it's not a closed practice

- the only DNI is anti endo. others? as long as you're respectful, you're welcome. please be nice

- i can take some time with answering because i have a job, and getting my second degree meanwhile

- asks with heavy typing quirks without translation will be deleted. i can't understand most of quirks

about me:

[pt: about me]

- collectively we can be called cube! collective pronouns are she/her

- bodily adult

- i use i/we interchangeably, also refer to my headmates as "aspects"

- i am also traumagenic; i have a tulpa, and then i started creating willomates (i personally see difference between those practices)

- english isn't my first language. if i make mistakes, that's okay (i'm learning to be kinder to myself haha). if my mistakes confuse you, feel free to politely ask what i meant (i can struggle with translations)

HOLY shit the amount of AI slop on pinterest has made it fucking unusable. I keep trying to fight it by hiding ever AI generated image I see but that means half (or more) of the search results get hidden and I'm left with only a handful of human-made images. Everything seems fine for me when I use it normally, but the second I go looking for inspiration for characters or a world I'm building...

I mean why? Why??? I think the most offensive ones are the ones labelled as "inspiration." There is nothing inspiring about an image created with almost no human input, no artistry, no passion - what part of that is supposed to inspire me? It is nothing but a delusion to think you're being helpful by flooding the internet with this garbage, no matter your intentions.

It's getting to a point where I'm struggling to tell what's AI and what isn't, which has not only become a massive nuisance very quickly, but has also quite frankly wounded my pride. I'm just trying to build a board of reference images and inspiration for my fantasy world, I don't want to be doing mental gymnastics with every single image I come across and that looks like what I'm after; there's lots of detail in the background, but those patterns don't line up and everything has a suspicious blur while simultaneously being very sharp, is it an artistic choice or just AI being AI?

I know it's basically unavoidable at this point, but that doesn't mean I have to accept that. I want photographs taken and art made by humans! I want architecture photos and illustrations of what that same placemight have looked like 500 years ago! I refuse to kowtow to the assholes who make the internet an unsafe place for artists like myself, who carry on despite the knowledge that our art (drawings, writing, photography, etc.) is probably being stolen and stuffed into a digital machine that demands more and more of our blood, sweat and tears just to eventually replace us.

The next time you stumble onto an AI generated image and think "hey, that's not so bad, it's kinda pretty actually," remember that that image could not have been created without a hundered pieces of stolen art and a hundered human artists left in its wake.

Pantheonic vs Pop-Culture Deities

What is a Pantheonic deity?

Pantothenic deities are deities that are from a specific religion; the word pantheon means a group of important individuals. For instance, the Greek gods, titans, primordial beings, etc are all part of the Greek Pantheon. 

What is a Pop-Culture deity? 

Pop-Culture deities are any characters that come from media, such as tv shows, movies, games, books etc. A lot of anime characters are very popular pop-culture deities. Some people also refer to them as pop-culture entities, or PCDs/PCEs for short. 

Are Pop-Culture deities real deities? 

The answer to this gets a little complex and there’s a lot of debate surrounding this question. This answer is also just my own opinion based on my experiences and perception! Pop-Culture deities are, at the very core of their being, entities that have been created by humanity. Anime characters, book characters, video game characters are all examples of Pop-Culture deities. Unlike pantheonic deities, people's own beliefs in them or honoring them in various ways (yes, even people who do not believe in witchcraft) has brought them to life; fed them energy that has made them into real, sentient beings. These can be considered egregores or thoughtforms. Unlike pantheonic deities, egregores need a supply of energy they can feed on in order to continue existing. Oftentimes, they are able to gain energy from people simply enjoying the sources they are from. However, from my experience, there are times where these entities will become strong enough or popular enough that they transform into actual deities; they are no longer a simple egregore but a completely independent being that doesn’t need a supply of energy in order to exist, they can exist all on their own. I have found that a lot of Pop-Culture deities that I have encountered, even if their source is not that old, have incredibly ancient energies just like pantheonic deities, and they do not need outside energies in order to survive. Basically, they have surpassed being simple thoughtforms and egregores and have transcended into actual deities. I have asked my deities about this before, and they have told me that once the egregore gains enough energy they can essentially transform into an independent being; my team has told me that deities can also help make this happen. 

What are thoughtforms/egregores? 

As stated above, they are creations of human design; they are created from energies for specific purposes. A lot of egregores are made to be servitors or guardians for the person and their space. Not all egregores are sentient or conscious either, some people chose to make them without consciousness or sentience.

How do pantheonic deities get along with Pop-Culture deities? 

From my experience and from what I’ve heard from others who work with both, they get along pretty well. There are some PCD’s that may have a reputation of being more chaotic, and this may make other deities in a practitioner's life more cautious, but this can happen for pantheonic deities as well. 

Do I need to specify that I work with the PCD version of a pantheonic deity? 

In general, that’s up to you and your preferences. I know some communities and people can be quite judgmental about working with PCD’s. For more specific interactions, like if you are getting a tarot reading from someone, it is best to specify that you are wanting a reading from a PCD so that they are calling on the correct being. 

Does the astral get crowded with how many deities exist? 

The astral is a very vast place, and in my belief, it probably does not get crowded in general. However, when it comes to someone's personal space (the space where their team would exist around them in the astral) it might get crowded in the sense that there could be a lot of different energies mixing at one time. This is why when more generalized readings are done for you, your entire spirit team may be present to offer insight and advice.

Do PCD’s with ‘dead’ fandoms die? Can they come back to life if the fandom comes back? 

This ties into my personal beliefs about PCD’s and their separation from being an egregore vs an independent entity. All in all, it depends. If the PCD is able to break away and become more than just an egregore, then yes they would exist even if their fandom dies. To answer the second part of the question, if an entity who was an egregore’s fandom came back, then I do believe that entity would be re-created. From what I’ve been told, if the entity is being entirely re-created, they will essentially be a new egregore, rather than the one that existed before. 

How do I know if a PCD for a certain media exists yet? 

Basically, if a media exists, that PCD would exist as well, if you want them to. Again this ties into the concept that egregores can become more when given the chance. If you create an Original Character (OC) and make them into an egregore, then they do exist. If you continue to feed them energies, and allow them to experience the world around you independently of you, then they can change and transform and become something more than just an egregore. Belief is a huge factor in this as well, if you believe that they should exist, then they will! 

Do the source events equal what actually happened to them? 

This answer can be very complicated, but from my experience it's similar to how pantheonic deities are. Their source material can affect and influence them, and it is, and isn't, things that actually happened to them. This also goes into personal beliefs again, as some people do believe that what happened in the source has actually happened to the deity, while others see it more as just a story/myth. 

Do they follow the same rules as pantheonic deities in terms of reaching out, spousal, etc? 

Yes, for the most part they will follow the same rules. You can reach out to a PCD, or they might reach out to you. The same goes for spousal, sometimes they may ask, but the mortal party can also ask if there is interest there. 

Are they weaker than pantheonic deities? 

Egregores themselves are generally weaker than pantheonic deities, however again this ties into the belief that some PCD’s are more than just egregores. PCDs who are more than egregores do tend to be just as powerful as pantheonic deities. In the end though, if working with a PCD is what you’re drawn to do, regardless of if they are still an egregore or not, if they are benefitting you and your practice, then go for it. Power is a lot more complicated than ‘this deity is weaker than that deity’ when it comes to magic. 

Do they have the same likes/dislikes as in their source? 

The answer to this is generally yes; again similar to pantheonic deities and specific offerings/preferences listed in their myths that they may like/dislike, a PCD will probably have similar preferences in real life as well. However, this is also about personal experience too, and this goes for both pantheonic and pop-culture deities. If the practitioner dislikes something, the deity may either not ask for that offering, or tell them they don’t want that offering from them (to avoid making the practitioner buy something they’re not going to also enjoy). On the opposite end of that, the deity may encourage the practitioner to buy that item to encourage them to branch out (for instance, Poseidon has been slowly but surely making me like coconut, something that up until I started working with him, I hated). This can depend a lot on the practitioner's own boundaries with their deities as well. 

What if I don’t believe in PCDs? 

It's perfectly ok if you don’t believe or want to work with PCDs; however everyone's practice is valid, and me personally, I do try to respect everyone's practices even if I don’t hold the same beliefs as they do. 

Do the creators of PCD’s and their viewpoints influence the PCD? 

The answer to this question is yes, and no. Especially for PCD’s whose source isn’t finished (like an ongoing book series) this can change and influence the PCD a bit as a real being as the book character evolves in real time. However, the creators' more personal viewpoints (like their religious background for instance) will not hold that much influence on the actual being. 

What if someone I know works with a PCD that I dislike? 

Just like any other deity, you don’t need to interact with them if you dislike them; however I would say that PCDs are different than they are in their sources; they may not behave exactly the same. 

What about PCD’s that are evil? Are they really evil in real life? 

As stated above, PCDs are not like they are in their sources. For instance, I work with Blitzo from Helluva Boss, and while his general personality is the same as it is in Helluva, he himself is different. He has more understanding and knowledge of the universe as a PCD, and while in the show, he struggles a lot with issues such as communication. Working with him, he’s helped me learn how to communicate better. The same goes for ‘evil’ PCDs; while they might be evil in the show, as a PCD they will not necessarily be that way. They may become more like trickster deities, however they are not generally going to be harmful. 

As usual, I would like to thank @astralscraft for helping me with writing this. They always give me so many wonderful questions to answer, and they always help me make sure everything is as clear as it can be when I’m writing these. Thank you so much for helping! 

Interesting & Useful Occult Unicode Characters

Some of these may show up as a weird square/question mark thing depending on the font used/configuration of your browser. 

𖤐 Inverted Pentagram

Stars:

★ Five-pointed Star ✶ Six-pointed Star ✷ Eight-pointed Star ✹ Twelve-pointed Star

Elements:

🜁 Air 🜂 Fire 🜃 Earth 🜄 Water

Planets:

☉ Sun ☽︎ Moon ☿ Mercury ♀ Venus ♁ Earth ♂ Mars ♃ Jupiter ♄ Saturn ♅ Uranus ♆ Neptune ♇ Pluto

Astrology:

☊ Ascending Node ☋ Descending Node ☌ conjunction ☍ opposition

Egyptian Deities:

𓀭 or 𓁰 or 𓁱 Ptah 𓀲 or 𓀴 Osiris 𓁐 Goddess 𓁚 or 𓁛 Re 𓁟 or 𓅝 Thoth 𓁠 or 𓁡 Chnum 𓁢 Anubis 𓁢 Upuat 𓁣 Seth 𓁤 Min 𓁥 Hathor 𓁦 Maat 𓁨 Hah 𓁩 Amun 𓁮 Menthu 𓁯 Tatenen 𓂕 Nehebkau 𓆫 Selkis 𓅃 Horus 𓋇 Seshat 𓋋 Neith

Alchemy:

☿ Mercury (Mind) 🜔 Salt (base matter or body) 🜍 Sulfur (Soul)

♁ Antimony 🜺 Arsenic 🜘 Bismuth = Boron ⊛ Magnesium ☽☉ Platinum 🜏 🜍 Sulfur

Runes:

ᚠ FEHU - F: Cattle ᚢ URUZ - U: Brute Strength ᚦ THURISAZ - TH: The seeing of the future ᚨ ANSUZ - A: references the ancestral god, Odin. ᚱ RAIDHO - R: Journey ᚲ KENAZ - K: Beacon or torch. ᚷ GEBO - G: Gift of Harmonic Relationships ᚹ WUNJO - W or V: Bliss and Glory ᚺ HAGALAZ - H: Destructive forces ᚾ NAUTHIZ - N: The Negatives of Human Needs ᛁ ISA - I: Ice ᛃ JERA - J or Y: The Cycle of One Year ᛇ EIHWAZ - EI: Yew Tree ᛈ PERTHRO - P: Initiation, Things Unexplained, Something Hidden ᛉ ALGIZ: Z ᛊ SOWILO - S: The Sun ᛏ TEIWAZ - T: Tyr, the sky god. ᛒ BERKANA - B: Birch-goddess ᛖ EHWAZ - E: The Sacred Horse ᛗ MANNAZ - M: The nature of Humanity ᛚ LAGUZ - L: Water - Emotions ᛜ INGWAZ - NG: Fertility ᛞ DAGAZ - D: Daylight or Dawn. ᛟ OTHALA - O: Ancestral property - Inheritance

Other Egyptian Hieroglyphs I thought were interesting:

𓂀 Eye of Horus 𓃠 Cat 𓃩 Set-animal 𓃶 Goat with collar 𓆣 Scarab 𓆸 Lotus

Keep reading

A Crash Course on Channeling

What is Channeling?

Channeling is allowing a nonphysical entity to use your physical body, in order to accomplish something. If that sounds, vague, it’s because it is. Channeling takes many different forms and intensity levels! Depending on how it’s done, it can be a medium-difficulty task or one of the most advanced things a spirit worker can do. 

Types of Channeling

I once heard channeling described as a car ride, and in my experience that’s very accurate. The car is your body, and you’re in it with an entity. Sometimes you’re in the driver’s seat, and the entity is in the back seat giving directions. Sometimes you or the entity is in the passenger’s seat: not calling most of the shots, but able to reach over and grab the wheel if needed. Sometimes you’re in the backseat watching the entity drive, and sometimes you’re in the trunk. In practice, this can take a number of forms.

Speaking on Behalf. This is the kind of channeling people do most often. The entity isn’t controlling you, just feeding you lines which you can then relay to a third party. You’re translating their messages to something other people can comprehend. If you’ve ever answered a question for a spirit in their words, you’ve done this. 

Isolated Channeling. The entity takes control of just a part of the body, usually the hands or fingers. This is mostly used for things like automatic writing.

Assuming Form. Also known as consensual possession. The entity is in the driver’s seat, speaking and acting for themselves without your help. Some people will call this “horsing.”

Possession. While the word “possession” could technically cover all of this, within the spirit work community it’s usually reserved for channeling where the human did not consent beforehand. This doesn’t necessarily mean in a violating way- I once had a friend who got possessed just long enough for an entity to yank them out of danger; once I was taken for just a moment to convey a quick (but very direct) message to a devotee, and snapped out of it right after. 

Reasons to Channel

Everyone will have a different reason to channel but most of them fall under a few categories:

Helping Someone Else. You’re channeling on behalf of someone who can’t [easily] reach the entity themselves, in order to ease communication between the two parties. This is often seen with mediums contacting spirit guides and Ancestors.

Aid in Other Works. The entity is better suited to accomplish a certain task than you, so you let them take the lead. This is often seen with a familiar or spirit companion, someone the practitioner works with closely enough to know their strengths and trust them. 

Easier Communication Overall. Channeling is a way to get really familiar with an entity’s energy. Again, we often see this with spirit companions and is more to bond than to achieve another goal.  This would include automatic writing or letting a spirit experience things “through” you. 

Ritual Invitation. In some traditions, it’s common to invite deities to ritual events. Often, some type of channeling/possession is expected and is usually reached through ecstatic experiences. It’s taken as a sign the deity has arrived at the party, either a sign the offerings have been received or a time for the deity to convey important messages. 

Before-You-Begin Essentials

Know How To Protect Yourself. This is non-negotiable. Is your discernment tuned enough to spot an impostor or malevolent entity? Do you know how to end a session early? Do you know how to banish a spirit in an emergency? If the answer is no, then study up and return to channeling when you’re ready. 

Know Your Entity. Channeling, by nature, puts the practitioner in an intimate and vulnerable place, so you don’t want to give that access to an entity who may misuse it. If it’s your first time channeling, make sure you trust this entity with your life. 

Don’t Channel Alone. When you channel, you’re in an altered state of consciousness. Having someone grounded near you helps keep the session on track and keep you out of trouble should you need it. (Either by forcing an entity out if needed or just keeping you from climbing that tree.) 

Other Notes

It’ll Probably Take a Lot Out of You. Have something ready to ground and rehydrate yourself after a session, and make sure you don’t have anything high-demand planned after. 

Start Small. No need to jump head-first into the most advancecd and high-intensity types of channeling! Start with automatic writing or painting and get used to the feeling and work your way up.

Don’t Make It Weird. Basic etiquette still matters. Channeling is not a pass to give unsolicited messages to other practitioners, speak on behalf of their deities to them (unless they’ve specifically asked), or say hurtful things cushioned by: “What? It wasn’t me who said it.”

Messages Are Rarely “Pure.” This means everything is still filtered through you, the practitioner. Your values, morals, biases, and beliefs can inform what messages get through and how they are conveyed. Nobody wants to send out a message they disagree with, after all. This becomes less of an influencing factor with experience as one learns to hone their skill and let go more, but it’s important to always keep in mind. (If a channeling friend says a deity doesn’t accept your gender identity or something, that’s a good sign that really your “friend” doesn’t accept it.) 

this website’s easy watch. *dangles a bunch of greek gods like keys*

A family of cheetahs sleep with the forest guard every night. When the Forest Dept. heard about it, they decided to check the veracity of the claim by installing a CCTV camera. This is what the camera recorded! Just amazing.

Kitties will be kitties 🐈‍⬛

Raven’s Guide to Baneful Magic

Baneful magic is magic intended to do harm. So to all the Wiccans, sorry, this one isn’t for you.

Now that I have all you spiteful mad-at-the-world types, let’s begin.

There are generally 4 levels of baneful magic. Jinxes, Hexes, Bindings, and Curses.

A jinx is a small spell to bring bad luck. It could be as little as flipping someone off with intent and they stub their toe. This kind is mostly annoying and pretty harmless to everything except toes and the odd finger pinched in a door.

Hexes are the next step up and it’s not a small step. The best way to describe them would be short term and weak curses. This would take a small spell. The consequences could be anything from being forgetful to anxiety to coming down with a small cold. These are meant to ruin someones day or maybe a week.

A binding is a bigger spell. It’s the black sheep(pun intended) of baneful magic because a lot of witches who won’t use baneful will still bind. It does what it sounds like, it stops someone/thing from doing something(normally harmful). These spells normally have an end condition ie (this person will never find love until they atone for X). These can be pretty bad for the person being bound, but having an end condition makes them more constructive.

Curses. These are the heavy hitters. I wouldn’t curse anyone unless I wanted to wreck their shit. Curses take a major spell(most of the ones you see on Tumblr would actually fall under hexes or bindings). The effects can be ruining a relationship and all ones after, wrecking a career, destroying a friendship, major illness, etc…

For curses, I don’t believe in the rule of 3(I’m not wiccan). But I would still protect myself to the gills before attempting one. Major magical workings move a lot of energy, and things can notice that. Also, a bit of stray energy latching onto you during the spell and you’ll quickly find you hexed yourself by mistake.

“What would I use for a curse?”

Well, specifics would come with what you wanted to accomplish and what you have around, but I can give you very general things.

Anything black will probably be good for baneful magic

Unpleasant things

Certain spirits can help you(not recommended for beginners do not sell your soul to curse your ex)

Salt

Graveyard Dirt(again not a beginner thing)

Poppets are fun! evil cackle

Spicy things, the hotter the better

Things that smell like the garbage after a week(do not use actual garbage it’s a health hazard)

You’re going to need a Taglock

Nails

Fire(don’t burn yourself or your house)

Pretty much anything nasty

Anything poisonous(DON’T POISON ANYTHING OR ANYONE)

There is a very short list that should give you an idea. Each spell would be pretty customized to what you wanted it to do.

And there you have it, a crash course in baneful magic. Do what you will, but don’t be stupid. This isn’t a game and if you want to curse your ex I would suggest leaving off for a few months before you actually do it.

And finally…

NEVER CAST A SPELL YOU CAN’T UNDO!!!

I love how I get credit when all I do is text jay with questions lol, thanks jay! Love you!

Psychic Abilities

What are psychic abilities? 

Psychic abilities are metaphysical powers that generally cannot be explained or observed by science (although there are scientific studies that are currently trying to understand and delve into psychic abilities). Everyone has access to psychic abilities; the most common psychic ability out there is intuition, that ‘gut feeling’ people get. I will list more psychic abilities down below. 

Please make sure that you are discerning mundane from magical; some of these abilities can and are symptoms of serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, so if these suddenly start happening (especially around the age of 20) please make sure you are checking with your doctor to make sure nothing medically is wrong. 

Clairsenses

Clairvoyance- also known as clear-seeing, this clair allows people to see pictures or images, or even visions in their minds eye or sometimes even manifesting in the real world. This is also a clair that can allow someone to see auras. 

Clairaudience- also known as clear-hearing, this clair allows people to hear deities, spirits and entities, again either in their mind or sometimes manifesting in the real world. This can also manifest as hearing music randomly or having a song repeat over and over and over in your head, or having a deities name constantly on your mind/in your head (this can sometimes be a sign a deity is reaching out or generally trying to get your attention as well). 

Claircognizance- also known as clear-knowing; this can be your intuition going off about something. Just ‘knowing’ that something is going to happen, and then it does. Being able to know what color an object is when its in black and white, etc. 

Clairempathy- also known as clear-emotion; this clair allows the practitioner to sense others emotions, sometimes this can almost manifest as if you are feeling those emotions, even if you aren’t. 

Clairsentience- also known as clear physical feelings; this clair allows someone to feel physical sensations and energies (for instance, feeling like someone is touching your head when no one is physically there). 

Clairtangency- also known as clear-touch; this clair allows someone to receive information through touching objects. This has manifested for me before. I will touch an object and sometimes have gotten downloads of information from that object about the person who previously owned it, or the energies that were commonly around that object. 

Clairsaliance- also known as clear-smelling; this clair is when you can pick up on smells that aren’t necessarily in the physical world. A good example is that sometimes I will smell my deities when they are around me. 

Clairgustance- also known as clear-tasting; this clair is similar to clairsaliance, but with taste. It allows the practitioner to taste different things in the spiritual realm. Similar to clairsaliance, sometimes when I am channeling, I can taste the things my deities have been eating. 

Can psychics read minds? 

This, along with anything you might see about psychics in media (movies, tv shows, etc) is probably fake, at least in the way it is usually presented in these media formats. Using clairsenses, and being able to pick up on subtle cues from the other person, can lead to some ‘mind reading’ or telepathic-like abilities. For example, I know my wife very well, and even if she doesn’t always outwardly say so, I can sense when her mood has shifted. There are other friends that I have been able to do this with as well, including online friends. So the answer to this question is ‘yes, but not in the ways you might think’. I cannot tap into people's minds and see their exact thoughts, but with a combination of my clairsenses, and picking up on cues I see from them, I can figure out what they might be thinking, or how they might be feeling. 

How can I train/hone my clairsenses? 

There are various ways to do this, depending on the clairsenses you’re wanting to hone. Firstly, I recommend figuring out what your strongest clairsenses are. This is basically just about observing yourself and how you experience the world; this can also sometimes correspond to your physical senses. Once you know what clairsenses you have that are strongest, focusing on using those in various settings is a good idea. For instance, if you find that clairvoyance is the strongest clair you have, practicing meditation and seeing things during meditation might be a good idea. 

How do I know it's not just my imagination and it is psychic abilities I’m experiencing? 

This is where discernment and using other tools can come in very handy. Double checking with divination is a very good way to know if you are really using your clairsenses, or if it's just your imagination. There may also be certain emotions or feelings that come with psychic abilities vs imagination. For instance, for me personally, I’ve found that a good way to discern my intuition vs imagination is the emotions that come with it. If I get a sudden feeling about something for instance, I ask myself if there is anxiety or other negative emotions surrounding that situation; if the answer is yes, I often use other tools to figure out if the feeling I’m getting is truly my intuition, or if it's just me being anxious about a certain situation. If there are no emotions that I can figure out are coming from a situation, but something feels ‘off’ I still use discernment, but am more likely to immediately trust the gut feeling I get. In certain situations (like if I’m driving and my gut tells me ‘don’t take this road!) I usually do trust my gut feeling, and later on am often shown why my intuition told me to do that (often it's because of road closures or traffic that my intuition was guiding me to avoid). 

Do mental illnesses (such as autism, ADHD, and dissociative disorders) affect psychic abilities/clarisenses? How do I distinguish the two? 

Yes, mental illnesses can sometimes affect psychic abilities and clairsenses. Again, this is where discernment and using other tools such as divination can come in handy. Practicing can help as well; I have autism and ADHD, and sometimes it’s hard for me to distinguish if it's a deity talking to me, or just my ADHD going ‘brrrrr’. However, as I have practiced over the years, I have learned how to distinguish between the two sometimes; a lot of times my inner voice sounds different than the voices my deities will use, which is a good way to know that I might be hearing something other than my own inner monologue (I also still use divination tools as an extra step to make sure that what I’m hearing is in fact metaphysical). 

What deities do you recommend to help with learning/honing psychic abilities? 

First and foremost, pretty much any deity can help you with learning to hone your psychic abilities; however there are a few (mainly infernals, since I work so heavily with the infernal divine) that I will list that specialize in helping with psychic abilities. 

Hermes is a good option when it comes to seeking help with honing psychic abilities. As messenger to the Greek gods, communication is part of Hermes’ natural wheelhouse; this can go for both mundane and magical communications. He is excellent at helping not only with psychic abilities and clairsenses, but with divination as well. 

Dehuty/Thoth from the Egyptian pantheon is also a very good deity to reach out to for help with psychic communication; he rules over writing and communication. 

Some of the infernals I have listed below are lesser-known or unknown, so the UPG (unverified personal gnosis) listed here are all from my own personal experiences with them.

In my own UPG, the infernal Alcanor is also very good at helping with psychic communication, clairsenses and mediumship. 

Also my own UPG, the infernal Martinet is also excellent at helping with the clairsenses. 

Acuar is another infernal who is listed (VPG, verified personal gnosis) at being good at helping with psychic abilities (especially those that have to do with emotions). 

Lucifuge Rofocale, Azazel and Forneus are also infernals who are listed as being good at helping with psychic abilities. This is also VPG. 

This is not an exhaustive list of course, and in terms of the infernals listed, if you’d like to find out more about them I have more info on them on my Reddit blog; r/DemonStudies. 

Why are some clairsenses/psychic abilities stronger than the others? 

Clairsenses are like muscles; the more you use them, the stronger they will get. That being said, everyone is different; someone who is a runner is going to have very strong legs, but their arms might not be as strong in comparison, but their arms also don’t have to be as strong compared to their legs either. Same goes with clairsenses; the ones you use and focus on more are going to be the strongest ones you have. Some people also have natural talent with certain clairs (again, similar to physical abilities, some people are way better at smelling naturally than others around them, and this might also reflect with them having better clairsaliance as well). You can always hone and practice any psychic abilities even if they are not the ones you are strongest in. 

Do I have to be honed into my clairsenses to do deity work/spirit work? 

You do not have to be honed into your clairsenses to do deity work/spirit work, although from what I’ve seen most people getting into deity work are naturally drawn to honing their psychic abilities as well. 

Can using psychic abilities give me headaches? 

Yes, just like how sometimes you get a headache from eye strain from staring at something too long, using your clairsenses can also give you a headache or affect your physical body in other ways. Taking breaks, allowing your body and mind time to rest, and doing self-care can help to prevent this strain. 

Why do some people hear specific voices for their deities/spirits, while others just hear their ‘inner voice’ as deities/spirits talking to them? 

This comes down to everyone being different and everyone experiencing things differently. Again going back to how people physically experience the world, everyone experiences the physical world slightly differently, one person’s perspective might be different from another person’s. This is the same with clairsenses and how we experience our deities. I know for me, Loki generally smells like cinnamon and smoke (like from a bonfire), but for others, I’ve heard that he smells of just cinnamon, or they say that he smells like cigarette smoke at times.  

Will I be able to hear new deities/spirits I interact with right away? 

The short answer to this question is maybe. Again, this is about personal experiences; for me, when I first started out, I had a lot of trouble hearing new deities that I interacted with, it was very easy for me to pick up on their energies and know they were there, but when it came down to hearing and seeing them, even though I was hearing and seeing the deities I interacted with regularly, it was harder for me to hear and see new ones. Now that I have been doing this for so many years, I do find that I can very easily hear and see the new deities I interact with on a regular basis. So again, this can also be about practicing as well as natural abilities you may have. 

How do I avoid burnout when honing my psychic abilities? 

This is similar to the question about headaches above; taking breaks and self-care are very important when honing your psychic abilities. Also, don’t be hard on yourself if you’re not getting it right away. Again, this is like exercising a muscle; even if you do have natural abilities for the particular clairsense you’re trying to hone, it can still be hard and frustrating at times. Giving yourself grace, and not trying to rush the process will be the best thing you can do for yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others either, learn at your own pace; everyone's practice is different and everyone learns at different paces. 

How do I hone my intuition? 

First and foremost, trusting yourself is a huge part of honing your intuition. Intuition can often be that little voice in the back of your head warning you or telling you about something, or that ‘gut instinct’ many people talk about. Sometimes, it really is ‘just knowing’ something, and trusting that knowledge even when there is no outside evidence is very important. There are also many intuition tests you can do to work on honing (and recognizing!) your intuition and what it feels like. A lot of times I use these intuition tests to test and hone my intuition. Don’t be too hard on yourself either when you get these types of things wrong, sometimes we have off days and it is a learning experience! 

Will every deity/entity want to communicate using clairsenses? 

No, not every deity or entity will want to communicate using the clairsenses; some may prefer to use divination tools or other forms of communication to talk to you. From my experience most deities prefer to work with a combination of some clairsenses (even if thats just you using your intuition to pick up on messages they want to share with you) as well as other forms of communication. 

Are divination tools still useful even after I’ve developed my psychic abilities/clairsenses? 

Yes, divination tools are always very useful especially when it comes to discerning and verifying what you are told through psychic abilities. Using divination alongside psychic abilities is a very good way to make sure you are not going into spiritual psychosis. I always encourage anyone who is getting into any type of spirit or deity work to use divination as a way to discern what they are being told. 

As always I would like to thank my friend @astralscraft for helping me with this; they always ask such wonderful questions that I include and answer in these!

"How do I craft spells?"

A completely valid question, but first, a disclaimer:

I am still learning, most of my practice is spirit work and divination. This post is me recounting how I've came to craft my own spell with the guidance of other witches and my own creativity

So first things first:

Make your intentions precise

Set your intention for your spell. There are spells where you can set multiple intentions (say for example you're doing a spell to find a job and to get more money) but this can muddle the results, maybe you'll get an interview for a job or get a trial shift where you get paid, or maybe the spell just doesn't work.

A point to make: spells don't work sometimes. It's not your fault, sometimes it just doesn't. The universe will only give you what's best :3 other reasons it may not work is: you didn't have the right energy at the time, you didn't have the right materials, you didn't do enough mundane acts. But anyway, back to the post

Precise itentions: do you want a job? do you want a chocolate bar? Do you want a dog? Did you specify how you wanted to receive these things? If not you could get: a job for a weekend by helping a family member move; a picture of a chocolate bar; a toy dog gifted to you for secret Santa. Your intentions have to be clear.

Materials

Now while you don't have to have materials they can help set your intention into your spell and give it the push it needs. There's plenty of resources for what herbs, crystals, incense, oils and candles can be used for what type of spell. You don't have to use all of these (or any of these) but I do recommend it.

If you're someone wondering why you would make your own spell when there's literally thousands of spells out there, here's why. Let's say you're me; you live in an apartment (no garden to grow herbs) you're poor, can't buy speciality herbs or crystals, can't use incense cause your flatmate is asthmatic and every single spell that you find needs some type of special herb, crystal shards or incense to work. Instead of me spending eons looking through books to find a spell that I can actually do it's easier (for me) to make my own and look through the spell books for ideas.

Deities and Spirits

Yeap, you can incorporate deities into your spell, even offer the spell to one or multiple deities, ask them to help it come to fruition give them additional offerings, do whatever you like; who better to give your spell to the universe than those that control the universe.

You can ask dragons, Fae, elementals whoever to help you out, even give the spell a little boost! I'm working on a prosperity spell and I'm planning on getting my fire elemental spiritguide to give the ending (lighting a candle) a boost filled with passion

What else can I use for spells (that's free)

Here's a list of things you can use :3

1. Sigils, either make your own or find some

2. Random rocks and plants outside

3. Drawings

4. Meditation (helps to clear your mind before spellwork)

5. Birthday candles (guarantee you have some in the house)

6. Cooking spices (be sure to look up their magical properties)

7. Energy

That's all I can think of for now, if you have any questions or I didn't cover something feel free to ask!

Just btw I'm here too! I'm usually in chitchat and will probably offer free art if you give me an interesting idea lmao

I have an exciting announcement!

Me and a few friends of mine have created a discord server! This server is an education-based server focused around the infernal divine as well as general witchcraft and occult! We are 16+, godspouse and system friendly! We have a section for offering and receiving free divination services as well!

Join us today!

I come with a new species, this is Lumino the first of his kind :3

My current adopt I'm working on! Going to call the species Antidra (anti hydra) and sell them for 11 dollars on deviant art. I'm loving this process so much!

💪💖

Adopt Open - The Powder Twins

✦ • ---✦--- • ✦

Lyla

You go to sleep exhausted after drawing until 3am. You have a coffee date tomorrow but the creativity was too much and you had to finish. You worry about the bags under your eyes in the morning but what's done is done. Falling asleep you see a sunny glow and a gentle warmth as you fall asleep.

In the morning you go into the bathroom and are shocked. Your eyes are perfectly normal, no bags under your eyes! Your smiling face brings joy to the powder twin outside your window, Lyla, with her glowing hair and glowing smile jumps away to the next sleep deprived artist.

✦ • ---✦--- • ✦

Nox

As a sensible University student you always go to bed prim and proper. While your roommate may stay up until 3am drawing you always go to sleep at 11pm. Somehow you are still the one with bags under your eyes in the morning.

You groggily make your way out of your bedroom when you nearly slip on what appears to be an eyeliner pen with the words "Bagz 4 Dayz" on its side. You open it up and are shocked to see the nib doesn't produce eyeliner but something closer to eyeshadow when swiped on your hand. You are even more shocked when no amount of water and soap will remove the mark.

Enraged you go to your roommate after throwing the mysterious pen on your floor, convinced she's used some type of permanent marker to give you bags under your eyes.

When you go back into your room to show her the pen is gone, the window cracked and a sinister snicker can be heard flying away on the wind.

✦ • ---✦--- • ✦

SET PRICE FOR EACH: $10

Reference Sheet: +$5

✦ • ---✦--- • ✦

◆ You will get: a full size image of your character and image w/o background ◆

◆ No holds. Please, don't claim if you are not sure ◆

◆ Payment on PayPal ◆

◆Comment to claim◆

◆You can redesign it◆

◆All rights to the adopt go to you◆

Art (c)Me

Design(c)Me

I love reading zeir posts, I always learn so much!

Godspousal and Spirit Family

Introduction and the History of Godspousal

First off, I would like to highly recommend the book Spirit Marriage by Megan Rose; this book is a fantastic resource on godspousal that shows both historical and interviewed accounts of godspousal. Another term for godspousal is spirit marriage; this term is a broader term that covers more than just ‘gods’ in spousal. Another word that is commonly used to describe this is spiritspousal (generally used to describe a spousal relationship with non-deity entities). For this post, I am going to use the term spirit marriage or spousal, since these terms describe this more broadly. (I do generally use the term godspousal as a catch all term, however for this post, I want to use spirit marriage or just generally ‘spousal’ to avoid confusion). 

As this book describes, spirit marriage is not a new-age phenomenon, it can actually be found pretty much as far back as written history exists; there may be other instances where oral records had evidence of spirit marriage as well, but seeing as oral tradition may or may not be recorded, there isn’t much evidence of this. 

Different Types of Spirit Marriage

There are a few different types of spirit marriage, which I will describe here. 

Devotional- this type of spirit marriage usually involves the person devoting themselves almost fully to one or more deities. A lot of their craft may revolve around these deities, and there may be special things they do for and with these deities they are devotionally married to. 

Platonic- this generally involves a closer relationship with the deity, it can also go alongside devotional spousal. This is a relationship where the deity and the person may do things such as cuddle, hug, or even kiss. This relationship often involves the person relying on the deity/deities for emotional support or comfort when they are needing it. 

Romantic- this type of spousal is the most common type of spirit marriage, and the one that most generally is referred to when someone is talking about godspousal. Being romantically spoused to a deity/deities often involves a long process that can take years. Generally, romantic spousal includes a courting phase that can last months or even years. During this time period, the practitioner and deity/deities are getting to know each other. Some of the ways that spouses may get to know their deity/deities is by going on dates with them, getting to know them via meditation, and communicating with them through divination, clairsenses, and channeling. 

Familial/parental- this type of spousal is similar (and again can also involve) platonic and devotional spousal. The deity/deities will often take on a more parental or familial role within the person's life. The practitioner may lean on the deity for emotional support and comfort. The deity takes on a very parental, sibling or possibly uncle/aunt type role, depending on what the practitioner is needing. The practitioner may go to the deity for advice or otherwise treat them as a family member. The deity, in turn, will view the practitioner as one of their own family. 

How old do I have to be to be a godspouse? 

Some of the information I’m including in this section is going to be a bit controversial, however there are historical facts that I am going to go through here that I feel are important (and interesting). 

It is my belief that for romantic spirit marriage, a person should wait until they are at least 18 before even considering it. However, historically, there are records of romantic spirit spousal happening to people (specifically girls) as young as 12. This is mostly seen in Hindu culture (and is covered in the Spirit Marriage book mentioned above). Instead of forcing these young girls to be in an arranged marriage, these girls would be spiritually spoused to Shiva, or sometimes Shiva’s son, until they were older. 

The main reason, in my belief, that someone should not consider spirit marriage until they are older is not due to their age; deities do not hold the same human standards and morality as we do, they do not follow our laws and rules. Instead, this has more to do with maturity. Spirit marriage is a lifelong commitment and a very deep bond that you share. It is not something that someone does on a whim. Just like a human marriage, it takes years to get to know the entities involved, to bond with them, and to decide if ultimately you want them to be around you the rest of your life. Spirit marriage involves making vows, just like a human marriage, that you must uphold and keep. Sometimes, depending on the culture, the deity may even require the practitioner to be an open channel for them; allowing the deity to channel through them whenever the deity wishes, and even possibly allowing the deity to live permanently in the person's body so that they may do this. All of this requires someone to have the maturity to understand the depth and meaningfulness of this type of relationship; something that most teenagers (and even some people who are in their early 20s) will not truly understand. While divorce is sometimes possible, it would be similar to a human divorce, with many years of fighting and debating to decide if that is truly the best course of action for both parties. Divorce when it comes to spirit marriage is incredibly rare (the Spirit Marriage book actually does mention this as well). 

Can I be spoused to multiple deities? 

This question has already been alluded to, but yes, you can have multiple deities as spouses. In the book Spirit Marriage, there is a person who has about 7+ spouses that are listed. I personally am also spoused to multiple deities; some of the deities I am spoused to have been spousing me for many many lifetimes as well, and our spousals have continued into this lifetime. 

How do spouses interact with their deities/entities? 

As with some of the other posts I made, there are multiple ways to communicate with deities/entities. Divination is a very common way to do this, as well as using the clairsenses. Channeling is another very common way that a lot of spouses end up communicating. Interactions such as going on dates can often happen in the astral realm, the realm where non-corporeal entities reside. Some people will also go out on dates in the physical world, going to a restaurant or other places they enjoy and allowing their deity/entity spouses to accompany them. 

How do I know if a deity/entity wants spousal? 

Generally there will be very clear signs when a deity/entity is wanting spousal. You may even be able to feel it in the energy they give off; they may give off a flirtatious vibe (although there are some deities/entities that have a very flirtatious energy in general, so please make sure you are using discernment and doing divination to confirm that they genuinely do want spousal). Other ways they may show you are by being around you constantly; they may outright tell you they want spousal (if you’re able to hear them). Some deities will send practitioners dreams about marriage or otherwise romantically-inclined dreams to signal they are wanting spousal. Some deities may mention it while the practitioner is doing divination with them. 

Is sex involved with romantic spirit marriage? 

Yes, sex can be (but is not always) a part of romantic spirit marriage. Again, similar to the above question about interacting with spouses, this often happens in the astral realm. This can also happen through self-pleasure. Spiritual pregnancies and spiritual children can also be a result of this; energy from the deities/entities as well as the practitioner's energies can go into making a spiritual child (or children). Multiple deities can also be involved in the creation of these children. With me and my wife, since we are spoused to some of the same deities, sometimes both our energies go into our spiritual children as well. In these situations, either the deity or the practitioner can become spiritually pregnant, and there may even be physical symptoms of pregnancy involved as well if it is the practitioner who gets pregnant. Even masculine deities can get pregnant (deities are very genderfluid in nature). 

How do you balance spirit marriage with physical relationships? 

This is going to be individual to each practitioner and their spouse(s). Some deities/entities will allow someone to have a human partner or human relationships, while others will forbid a human relationship. This is also something that needs to be discussed with your spirit spouses, as some people will be ok with never having a physical relationship, while with others it is something they will require in their human lifetime. 

For me personally, I got incredibly lucky in that my wife is also spoused to many of the same deities I am, so our relationship and spousals often coincide with each other very well. 

What is a spirit family? 

Spirit family can describe several things which I will go through here. Spirit family can refer to the human people who your soul tends to reincarnate with and who your soul was made alongside. This can include people such as soulmates, twin flames, etc. 

Spirit family can also refer to the actual deities/entities that helped create your soul (this can also be referred to as soul family); many people have several deities/entities that would consider themselves to be parental figures (for me, I have several soul moms and dads). The person may also have deities/entities that are brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Many times these deities/entities will have influence over the person’s personality and behavior (from what I’ve seen, a lot of times the soul parents will have the most influence. For me, Loki is one of my soul dads and he has influenced my personality greatly this lifetime. I'm incredibly chaotic, but also incredibly empathetic just like him). 

Spirit family can also refer to deities/entities that have adopted you as one of their own in past lives (or even in this current one). One of my spirit mothers, Yemoja, adopted me from a past life and still considers me to be her family (she takes on a motherly role for me). 

Can I be spoused to someone who is also part of my spirit family? 

Again this is another controversial question, but again I would like to point out that deities and other entities do NOT follow human laws and standards. They do not see things the same way we do. So the answer to this question, from my perspective, is a resounding YES. Loki is one of my soul fathers, and he is also the main deity I am spoused to. While in this lifetime he did start out as a father figure to me, and I grew up feeling that he was more of a dad than any other father-figures in my life, our relationship evolved and grew. As I started to get older (around when I was 18-19) I no longer needed him to act as a father figure to me. Our relationship evolved, and we eventually became platonically spoused when I was around 20. After that, our relationship continued to evolve, and at around 22 I accepted that he wanted to change our spousal once again to a romantic spousal. 

As for human relationships, I do want to go into more detail about soulmates, twin flames and other such terms. There are a lot of huge misconceptions about these concepts due to the media we have (social media, tv shows, movies etc). I want to go through the terms soulmates and twin flames, and cover the misconceptions many people have about these relationships. 

Soulmates

Soulmates are often a term that, in media, describe your ‘one true love’ that you are destined to be with. In reality, soulmates are people who were created alongside you and who often go through similar life experiences; you may be able to relate to them very deeply about similar experiences you have shared during your life. Most people have multiple soulmates, and not everyone will always be in a romantic relationship with their soulmates. I have encountered instances where someones pet, their mom, their dad, their siblings or even their best friends are their soulmates. I see many sibling relationships where this is the case in fact, where two siblings will be incredibly close, best friends, and will always be loyal to each other no matter what. These ‘ride or die’ sibling relationships can sometimes indicate that these two people are in fact soul mates. While some soulmate relationships are definitely meant to be romantic, that’s definitely not always the case. 

Twin Flames

Twin flame is another term that is often misunderstood or misused; some people use soulmates and twinflames interchangeably, however from my experience, they are two different categories of soul bonds. From my experience, a twin flame is someone who shares a part of another persons soul; twin flames often mirror each other in many ways, although unlike how soulmates may mirror each other in experiences, this tends to be more mirrored interests as well. As with soulmate relationships, I believe someone can have multiple twin flames, and that not all twin flame relationships are purely romantic. 

Karmic

The last soul bond relationship I want to cover is karmic relationships. These relationships can form over time from any type of soul connection someone may have with another person. These relationships are toxic and unhealthy; a lot of times the two people in the relationship will feed off each others negativity or bounce the negativity back and forth. Again, as with other soul connections, these relationships are not just romantic. These karmic relationships also often require cord cuttings in order to sever the bond between the two people so that they can grow and learn apart from each other. 

As usual, I would like to thank @astralscraft for helping me with this post! I'm sure that this is not all the information I can give about godspousal; feel free to inbox or message me if you have questions!

This is meant to be a witchcraft blog as well so here's something's I've learned for new witches

1. You don't need to do spells

I think this is important cause when I first started I didn't know wtf to do other than spells. The main thing would be to look at different aspects of the craft and see what interests you.

NOTICE how I did not say "and see what type of witch you want to be". That is because this whole "what type of witch" thing has only started in the last couple years to give people an overview of different aspects. I mainly do spirit work and divination but I also do spell jars and use crystals. See what aspects of the craft you like but please go to number 2

2. Start with the basics.

This is your typical grounding, cleansing and protection! Not enough people know how to do this and I know books are old fashioned (I'm 21 btw) and that everything is on websites (it isn't just btw) but read Witchery by Juliet Diaz! Captivating reading and yes it may look big but the font is massive and there's a bunch of spells you can just skip over cause my one criticism with the book is that the spells take really specific shit? Like I live by a beach, have one metaphysical shop with no herbs, no farmers market and I live in an apartment with no garden. Where am I getting really specific herbs from? Space? Amazon?

3. If you feel like a deity is reaching out to you then ask someone to check!

I work with Loki, a fire elemental in the form of a chimera called Flicker (who is now a spirit guide), Fenrir, Dionysus, Hestia, Prince Stolas of the Ars Goetia, a dragon (who has been a spirit guide for 4 lifetimes), and Hades! Now that may look like a lot and let me assure you it isn't. My mentor/ teacher/ friend has like 30+

I've been practicing properly for maybe two months btw, I started divination three years ago with spirit guides and other people's but I had to take a break for a year at least cause of my housing situation and mental health.

Everyone's path is different.

I started working with Loki first, I had this really weird feeling for ages that someone was reaching out so I asked @knowledge-from-the-abyss to do a reading. Loki and Fenrir were reaching out and from there I found more spirits or they found me. Some people never work with deities, some people do, some people get a nagging feeling that someone is talking to them.

4. Ask questions

Ask them here! I'll respond! I'm unemployed so I've got time lol, you don't have to go this alone and while your journey will be different from mine I'm still happy to help you along the way!

Hope you enjoyed my post! Feel free to ask any questions! If I don't know the answer then we'll learn together!

Does anyone know how to grow on this site and find equally crazy people or am I meant to just sit here and hope for the best? :')

A simple banishment spell:

Step 1: A rock. Any rock will do.

Step 2: Throw at target.

Step 3: Repeat as necessary.

Follow me for more witchcraft tips.

2nd Comm done for my housemate! Was amazing to work on!

My commissions are open! Please comment or DM me if you would like to work with me!

Drawing done for @knowledge-from-the-abyss , Hel! Norse Goddess of the dead and daughter of Loki!

My Comms are open!

Divination

What is divination? 

Divination usually (but does not always) involves using tools as a way to communicate with deities, guides, spirits etc (any being that resides on the astral plane). Here are some common divination methods people use. 

Pendulums (sometimes used alongside spirit boards)

Tarot cards

Oracle cards

Cartomancy 

Shufflemancy (using music to do divination) 

Osteomancy (bone throwing) 

Dice 

Coins

There are many many different forms of divination that you can research and utilize, however these are some of the common forms of divination that I see people using. I’ll also be covering some information about channeling and automatic writing later on in this post. 

Questions about Tarot, Oracle, Cartomancy (divination using any type of cards)

Can I buy my own decks/divination tools? 

Yes, you can absolutely buy your own decks or other divination tools. I know there is a lot of misinformation about this out there, some communities say that you aren’t allowed to buy your own decks (especially with tarot) but this is not true, you can and honestly should buy your own tools. You can always accept gifts as well, however in my experience with some of my friends getting me decks, I ended up getting rid of them because I didn’t vibe with their energies. When I buy my own decks, it's a lot easier for me to figure out if I’m going to like the energy of that deck and if we’ll get along. This goes for any divination tool as well! 

A huge reason this question comes up a lot when it comes to divination is because hundreds of years ago, people were judged and scrutinized for practicing witchcraft (and divination is considered witchcraft). Divination and other forms of witchcraft had to be done in secret, so going out and buying a tarot deck was not something someone could openly do. Nowadays, of course, most of the world does not have these same views. 

How do I shuffle my cards? How do I pick cards? 

There are many different ways to shuffle your cards; this can also depend on how big or small your cards are. I definitely recommend looking up various ways to shuffle online (most of the tips online will show you different methods to shuffle a regular playing deck). 

In regards to picking cards for a reading, there are also various ways to do this too. Some people will let the cards fall out and whatever cards fall out are meant for the reading. Some people shuffle until their intuition tells them to stop, and then they pull cards until their intuition tells them to stop (this is a method I use sometimes). Some people fan their cards out and pick the cards they are drawn to select. For me personally, I generally do the first method, but I only select cards that fall out with the card face up. 

Do I need to use reversals? What is the use of reversals?

You do not have to use reversals if you do not want to, however they do come in handy. Especially when it comes to tarot, not all the upright versions of the cards are positive, for example the Four of Cups Upright actually has a more negative meaning than the reversal. My perspective is coming from someone who has always used reversals, however I understand especially for someone just starting out, it can be very hard to use both upright and reversals. 

Can I still do tarot even if I can’t remember all the card meanings?

YES! I have been practicing tarot for over 15 years now, I’m a professional tarot reader, and I STILL don’t have all the card meanings memorized. I always use either this website or guidebooks that come with the decks to interpret, alongside my intuition and occasionally channeling as well to do my readings. You should not feel pressured or intimidated just because you don’t remember all the card meanings. I’ve honestly found (and others agree) that not always having the cards memorized and having to look up the meaning can help greatly with the interpretation; a lot of times reading what the guidebook says will give me intuition hits and allow my readings to be much more detailed. 

Do I need to use spreads? 

No, you do not need to use spreads if you don’t want to; I rarely ever use spreads in my practice, I just let the cards fall out and interpret it that way. 

How do I interpret multiple cards for one question? 

Generally, what I do when I am doing a reading is combine the meanings of each card together. I am actually going to use a real reading for myself to give an example of how to do this. 

Question: How can I make this a good week? 

Three of Cups Reversed- this card can often be about not being able to socialize or go out with friends. This shows that this week, there may be a lot going on in my life that will make me very busy; but that connecting back with my friends and family will be important. I know that I am a very social person, so having interactions with my friends and family will definitely help it to be a better week. 

Five of Pentacles Reversed- this card is actually one of the ones where the reversal is more positive than the upright version. This card shows that right now there may be some changes within my life this week. This may be a slow progression toward the changes I’ve been wanting, but I will see progress toward those changes. 

The Fool- this card is about new beginnings, there is always a sense of excitement that I get when I pull this card. This card shows that the changes the previous card talked about will be positive, new and exciting. 

Overall, this is generally the way I interpret the cards. The message here tells me that this week is going to be a very busy week for me; I need to focus on my friends and family, the people I care about, and make sure that I make time during this business to connect with them. This reading also shows that in general, this week will already be a good week for me. I'll see progress being made on some of the changes and goals I’ve been trying to implement, and overall this should be a fairly exciting week for me in general. 

Can I use tarot for yes/no questions? How? 

Yes, tarot can be used for yes/no questions, there are a few ways to do this. Most of these will involve the use of reversals. An easy method to do this with is to take the card's meaning, determine if it's more ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ and interpret that way. So you’d ask a question, draw a card, and if the card is more positive, that means yes, if the card is more negative, that means no. I also see people use upright vs reversals for this; assigning all upright cards as ‘yes’ answers and all reversed cards as ‘no’ answers. I’ve also seen people do something similar to this with three cards. They will shuffle, draw three cards, and interpret any uprights as ‘yes’ and reversals as ‘no’. If they get two or three upright cards, that means yes, and vice versa. My personal favorite method for doing yes/no questions with tarot is to assign certain cards with ‘yes’ and ‘no’. For me, The Magician is my ‘yes’ card and The Fool is my ‘no’ card. I take my deck, shuffle it, and start drawing cards. Whichever card comes up first, that's my answer! I am sure there are more ways to do yes/no questions that I haven’t covered here, however these are the ones that I either use myself or have seen others using. 

How do I cleanse my decks/divination tools? 

Going back to my post on cleansing, there are various ways to cleanse a deck or other tools. Again, referring back to the post, especially with anything that is made of crystals or metal, make sure that they are safe to be put in salt or water if that is the method you chose. Smoke and sound cleansing are also very good options. 

What is the Rider-Waite? Does it have to be my first deck? 

The Rider-Waite is a very popular tarot deck that is widely used. There are many different versions of this deck as well. This does not have to be your first deck, you can pick whichever deck you want to use as your first deck!

Do I need to learn about all the symbolism, astrology, etc surrounding tarot? 

While the symbolism, astrology and correspondences that tarot often have are important and can add more depth to your readings, this is definitely not a requirement. I am not very knowledgeable on astrology at all, and while I know some of the symbolism represented within tarot, again it is not something I am heavily knowledgeable on. When I read tarot, I use the symbology from the card art itself, my intuition and of course the card interpretations to help me interpret the message. 

General Divination Questions

Do I need divination tools for each individual deity/entity/spirit I work with? 

The short answer to this is no, you definitely do not need to buy each individual that you work with separate divination tools. You can absolutely do this if you want, but I know for me, with how many deities I work with, it would be crazy to try to get each and everyone one of them individual divination tools. 

Do AI/digital divination apps work? 

This question can be a bit complicated, and I do have my own opinions on it. At the end of the day, if this is what works for YOU, that's great, and you can definitely utilize it! Its definitely a method that can be useful if you are in the broom closet. For me personally though, I’ve always found that any forms of digital divination I try tend to be pretty inaccurate. Anything digital or programmed with AI is going to work off some type of algorithm, it may not be 100% authentic. 

How do I know who is answering when I’m using divination? 

This depends a lot on the individual practitioner; some people practice divination outside of any religious/spiritual lens. This post is generally more targeted toward people who are practicing divination within the scope of occult/witchcraft practices, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on. 

You can ask the universe/Source to answer any questions you have, your general spirit team/spirit guides, or an individual deity, entity or spirit. 

I also want to point out with this question that certain deities/entities/spirits may have a preference on divination tools; I’ve had encounters where the deity I’m trying to get a message from will refuse to use certain tools I have and will only give a message using specific methods. It's important to verify that the deity is ok using the method of communication you’ve chosen. Of course, if you have very limited options, the deity will absolutely accommodate you even if they have to use a tool they do not prefer. 

Other Forms of Divination

How do I use dice/coins? 

This (for dice at least) can depend on what type of dice you have. I know with regular numbered dice, I mainly use them for yes/no questions. I take one of my dice (I see other people use multiple dice for this method as well) and I assign even numbers to be ‘yes’ and odd numbers to be ‘no’. Then I roll three times. If I get two or three evens and one odd, that means yes and vice versa. With using multiple dice, you may only need to roll once as well, although I’ve also seen people roll multiple times as well. Some people also assign meanings to each individual number of dice; for instance, 1 means hard yes, 2 means yes, 3 means maybe, 4 means rephrase, 5 means no, and 6 means hard no.

For coin divination, the methods are similar. Generally for coin divination, you will not really be able to get ‘maybe’ answers, so keep that in mind. Most times, when people are using coins, they will use heads as ‘yes’ and tails as ‘no’ (you can do the opposite if you feel drawn to). They use one or more coins, and take the majority as the answer. 

How do I use a pendulum? 

Generally, I recommend bracing your arm against something (like a desk, or your knee even) to make sure that you are not accidentally moving while trying to ask questions. From there, you can either ask the pendulum to show you what means yes, no and maybe, or tell the pendulum how you want it to swing to indicate yes, no and maybe. From there, you would start asking questions and allow the pendulum to swing freely to get the answers! 

You can also assign a certain movement to a deity; asking them to show you that they are there by moving the pendulum in a different way than the regular yes/no/maybe. 

You can also make your own pendulum as well, even just using a necklace or anything with a weight on the end can be used as a pendulum, just make sure to cleanse it first! 

What is channeling? 

Channeling generally refers to the ability to allow deities, entities or spirits to enter your body and take some level of control in order to communicate. Channeling is an advanced practice, I don’t recommend trying to start channeling until you are very comfortable with doing the basics (cleansing, protections, banishing, vetting) and you have a deity, entity or spirit you are comfortable practicing with. Channeling takes a lot of trust and the willingness to give up control of your mind and body to someone else. There are different levels of channeling, sometimes the entity will only take over partially in order to communicate. Other times, they will be fully present and will essentially push the person to the ‘backseat’ of their body while the entity has full control. 

What is automatic writing? 

Automatic writing is a type of channeling although it is less of an advanced practice than actual channeling. With automatic writing, you are essentially entering a trance state and allowing either your subconscious or the deities, entities and spirits around you to write for you and give you messages. While it may not be as intense as channeling, it can still be difficult to do and difficult to get into the proper mindset to do. 

Is the keyboard method a valid form of divination? 

The answer to this may be a little controversial; I think the answer to this can be ‘sometimes’. This is a form of automatic writing which involves technology. However, as with automatic writing, you may need to be in a bit of a trance state for this method to really work. Using other divination tools alongside this method (to double check that you are getting an actual message and not just gibberish) is also something I would recommend. 

There are other forms of communicating with deities, entities and spirits that have not been covered in this post, such as communicating with clairsenses or through meditation. I will be covering these in a later post. 

I would again like to credit my friend @astralscraft for helping me with this post!

If you have additional questions that were not answered in this post, feel free to message or inbox me!

Who is Lucifer?

Lucifer is a Dark Lord and also a High Prince. He is also called Prince of Darkness. He is also considered a demon, an angel, and a fallen angel. He is also considered the first fallen angel to exist.

He is very good at helping people with shadow work, as he has faced much darkness himself. He is also very good at helping people find hidden truths, especially within themselves (yes, this is another form of shadow work, but its worth mentioning this specifically). He is also often one of the first infernals people tend to reach out to (or one of the first that tend to reach out to others). He is also incredibly good at helping people with religious trauma.

He is associated with the planet Venus, which reflects his passion and also his (sometimes) very sexual nature/energy. He is associated with the metal gold, which reflects him being royalty, as well as his transformative nature (shadow work). He is associated with the element of air, which again shows his transformative nature, and also shows that he can adapt quickly to changes.

In my own personal practice, Lucifer often shows up with long black hair, and sometimes has tattoos. Sometimes his hair is very short, but still black. He is often very well-dressed, usually wearing suits and ties. He has blue eyes, although in certain aspects I have seen them as red. Sometimes he has wings in this aspect, and sometimes I see him with fangs as well. As mentioned above, his energy can be incredibly sexual and alluring at times.

A note about Lucifer: there are some practitioners who experience him as being the husband of Lilith, however in my own personal practice, Lilith is spoused to Samael. That does not mean that both cannot be true, and there are several other demons like this, who are said to be spoused to different infernals based on sources. Also, there are some sources that say Lucifer and Satan are the same being, however, again, in my own practice, I experience them as two very different beings. I do not believe they are different aspects of the same entity, but different entities entirely.

Thanks Jay, was fun to add to!

Deity Work vs Deity Worship

What is deity worship? 

Deity worship is when you venerate and revere a deity/deities. There are many ways to do this;  there is no right or wrong way to worship a deity, it is whatever you feel drawn to do for them. Many people in the pagan community do this in their own unique way, while some will follow more organized, ritualistic ways of worshipping their deities. 

I will go more into detail about the various ways to venerate deities below. 

What is deity work? 

Working with a deity is a more intensive, interactive relationship. Working with a deity often involves actively communicating with them through things such as divination (tarot, oracle, pendulums, dice, osteomancy, shufflemancy etc) and psychic abilities. It can also involve them being more active in your practice, guiding you in both mundane and magical ways. A very common way deities work with someone is by doing shadow work with them, but there are many other things people do with deities that fall under the category of ‘deity work’.

How do I work with a deity/deities?

There are a lot of ways that you can work with a deity. As mentioned above a very common way of working with them is by doing shadow work with them. They will often guide the practitioner on various prompts to focus on. Another common way that you can work with deities is doing spellwork with them, such as doing protections, cleansing, banishment, and even baneful magic with them. 

Some of the things my deities work with me on is teaching me about energy work and weather magic. 

As with deity worship, there are no right or wrong ways to work with a deity. 

Altars

Many people will set up altars for their deities as a way to either work with or worship them (or both!). Here are some popular things you can put on your altar!

Candles 

Statues

Incense holders/fountains

Altar cloth

Decanter

Spell jars 

Crystals 

Herb pouches

Sigils

Books

Offering dish

Cups

Divination tools 

There are many other items you can put on your altars for your deities. This is just a short list, both of items I myself have put on altars before, and things I see others put on their altars. 

A lot of people also use their altars as a place to connect with their deities (which can get into deity work) as well as a place to do spellwork.

I’m going to answer some common questions about altars I see here. 

Can I put two/multiple deities on the same altar? 

Yes, you can. Some people (like myself) even create altars for entire pantheons, rather than individual deities. In addition, these deities do not all need to be from the same pantheon either. I have had altars where Loki and Leviathan were sharing the same general space (with different items in different sections for just one of them, and some items being placed there for both of them).

Can I add/remove/use things from my altar? 

Yes. You can (and should) clean your altar and you are of course allowed to use the items on your altar. Many people will store their divination tools on their altar, for instance. 

What if I do not have space for an altar/can’t have a physical altar? 

Digital altars are a very valid practice, I currently do not have enough space for all the altars I would want for the deities I worship/work with. I have seen people make altars in Minecraft, on Picrew, and I have altars set up on Pinterest as well. I have also used Pinterest’s collage function to make moodboards for my deities in order to honor them; these can count as digital altars as well. Some people make their own discord servers and use that space as a digital altar for their deities (I also have this set up for my deities too). On these digital altars, you can include pictures of how the deity appears to you, pictures of statues to represent them; themes surrounding what they rule over, colors, animals and plants they may be associated with, and much more. Just like a physical altar, you can get very creative with what you include. 

Will my deities get mad if someone else touches the altar? 

I’ve heard (and also experienced myself) times where family members or roommates will mess with someone’s altar. There seems to be a lot of fear with this; people are afraid it will anger the deity if the altar is accidentally touched. However, deities are very understanding and know that most times the person is unaware that the space is an altar; they won’t get mad if their stuff is accidentally touched, removed, or if someone else disposes of old offerings. 

Now, if someone is messing with it on purpose, with malicious intent, that might be different. However, especially for those in the broom closet, the deity is still not going to be mad at the practitioner or punish you in any way. 

Moving on from altars, I’m going to answer some questions I see when it comes to deity worship/work, before fully getting into the difference. 

Do certain deities not get along? 

Again this is something I see asked a lot online, both for deities of the same pantheon and deities of different pantheons. This comes down to personal experience. Many people think and might assume that deities who did not get along in their myths do not get along in real life either. However, at least for me, this is rarely the case. Remember, these are higher beings and the myths are just that -stories, that have been made up by humans. The myths do not reflect how they may be in real life. 

There are definitely instances where deities genuinely do not get along; I have experienced this in my own practice. However, this is oftentimes not because of myth-related disagreements but rather because the deities disagree on what may be best for the practitioner. This might also occur simply because the deities' energies do not mix well, it’s less that they don’t get along and more so that their energies clash with each other. This does not mean that you should stop working with these deities together if this is the case. Sometimes opposing energies are necessary.It’s also always a good idea to ask the deities themselves how they feel about the situation and what they think you should do. 

Will my deities get mad if I’m not able to give consistent offerings? 

This is another question I see a lot. Deities understand that we are human, we have our mundane lives to live, and we may not always have time or money to be able to buy offerings for them. There are many ways to give offerings to your deities, and some can be free and non-physical offerings too. I’ll go through some offerings I give to my team a lot, and some offerings you can do that are more non-physical or broom closet friendly. 

Doing shadow work in their honor/with them if you have a working relationship with them

Cooking/eating in their honor 

Bathing in their honor 

Putting on makeup in their honor 

Any form of self-care

Doing art/reading in their honor

Going on a walk/drive

Cleaning in their honor

Practicing divination

Journaling

Writing letters to them

There are many other offerings you can give to them, this is just a list of some of the things I do and some common things I see others do as well.

Do I need to pray to my deity/deities? How do I pray? 

Prayer is often a big part of deity worship, however it is definitely not a requirement. Prayer is when you ask your deities for something. You can do this in a very ritualistic way, lighting candles, sitting on the floor, etc, or you can do this in a very casual manner (like sending a quick prayer to them on your way to work). Again, there is no right or wrong way to pray to the deities you worship, there are many different ways you can do this. 

How do I start deity work?

Starting deity work will often involve reaching out to the deity/deities you are wanting to work with. You can do this in many ways, it can be as simple as calling out the deities name and saying ‘I would like to work with you, I’d like you to be more involved in my practice’. Using divination tools such as tarot or oracle cards, pendulums, spirit boards, etc can also help greatly in communicating and developing a relationship with the deity you are wanting to work with. 

Is my deity mad at me because…

The answer to this is most likely ‘no’. It takes a lot to piss a deity off. This question often comes from people who grew up with Abrahamic religions that taught them that making mistakes would anger ‘god’. The pagan gods do not get angry because you make mistakes or are not perfect. It is very hard to actually offend them, unless you do something purposefully to try to piss them off, you will not make them angry. They might get frustrated at us sometimes for falling into the same cycles and bad habits, but this is much different than them actually being angry. 

I also want to address blowing out candles specifically with this question. Some people see it as rude to blow out candles that are devoted to specific deities or used as a form of divination. It is not rude to blow out candles at all, if you have finished communicating with your deity, or are simply moving to a different room/leaving your house, or need to blow it out for whatever reason, you can absolutely do so. The deities do not see it as rude and will not get angry at you for doing this. They might be a bit sad/disappointed, but again this is different than them being genuinely angry. It's like having to tell a friend you have to get off a call with them, even though you still want to talk to them. They might be a bit disappointed but they will understand. 

Is __ a sign from my deities?

The answer to this is complicated; discernment is very important when it comes to answering this question. An easy way to answer this is by asking the deity through divination if whatever you experienced really was a sign. Sometimes deities will send signs in unusual ways (even through social media, yes I know that’s controversial but it does happen sometimes). 

The other question to ask is: did I ask for a sign? There have been times where I will ask for signs and they may show me the sign in a weird way (like asking to see a specific type of bird in my area, and then seeing it on a postcard, for instance). 

Can I reach out to deities? How do I reach out to a deity? 

Yes! As long as the deity is not from a closed/gated practice you are not part of, you can reach out to whoever you want! There are many different ways you can go about reaching out to them; I first recommend doing research on the deity you are wanting to reach out to (this in itself may get their attention and let them know you are interested in them). A very simple way to reach out to them is simply by calling their name, and telling them you wish to work with them or are going to be honoring them. 

What are closed/gated practices? 

Closed and gated practices are usually religions where you need to either be born or initiated into the culture in order to practice it. Many of these practices are closed or gated because of other cultures and religions attempting to appropriate these practices, or erase things within these cultures. 

What do I do if a closed practice deity reaches out to me, but I’m not part of that culture? 

This is going to get controversial, but this is my opinion especially as someone who is part of several closed practices myself. In my opinion, while practices themselves can be closed, deities are not. Deities are independent beings from us, they do what they want outside of human rules and laws. If a deity from a closed practice reaches out to you, my advice is to do tons of research first. There are some closed practices that have officials who can help you with figuring out if a deity from that culture truly is reaching out to you, and can give advice on what to do moving forward. My other piece of advice is to not ignore the deity calling you. There have been some instances where I ignored the call from some of the closed practice deities I now work with, and while it didn’t necessarily anger them that I ignored them, it did annoy them and they were incredibly persistent with their presences until I did acknowledge them. 

What do I do if I need to take a break from practicing? How do I let my deities know? 

Breaks are very healthy and help with preventing burnout when it comes to practicing witchcraft or being pagan in general. If you feel you need to take a break, I recommend just letting the deities you are working with or worshipping know in whatever manner you usually use to communicate with them (a very easy way is just telling them ‘hey, I need to take a break’). They will understand and they will wait for you to be ready to resume practicing with them. Like with previously mentioned situations, they will not get angry at you for simply needing to step away for a bit. A lot of deities may even continue to be around you while you are on break as well, to show that they still care about you and are willing to support you. 

How do I balance working with multiple deities? 

This is, of course, dependent on you as a person. I know some people who make schedules, while others will allow the deities to decide when to show up in their practice. Since I work with quite a few deities and pantheons, generally I dedicate each week to a different pantheon, and dedicate each day to a different deity from that pantheon. I also have picker wheels that I use for this; this is both to make it more ‘fun’ for my ADHD brain (lol) and also to allow the deities to decide who wants to be more present during the week. Sometimes, deities may also decide to be more or less present depending on what you’re going through in life and what type of guidance you are needing. There may be times where a deity will take a step back so that someone else can step forward to take over guiding you a bit more. This is all very normal when it comes to deity work; not every deity needs the same amount of attention and not all of them will always be equally present, and that's ok! 

There are also sometimes where a deity will decide they have taught you all you need to know, and they may discuss ending the working relationship with you entirely. This does not necessarily mean you will never see them again, but it may mean that they show up a lot less, as they have guided you in all the ways they feel you needed them for. Oftentimes, this will happen years and years into you working with them, and you may even realize that this is going to happen before an official discussion about it is mentioned. You can, of course, continue to honor and worship them even after they have officially stopped working with you. 

Another subject I want to address here is that while you can absolutely reach out to and generally work with multiple deities, it's also important to remember to not rush into things. At the beginning of my practice, the only deities I had around me for years were Hades and Loki. After I had been researching and practicing for at least 6-7 years, that's when new deities started approaching me and when I felt comfortable reaching out to some deities as well. I know that working with multiple deities can be overwhelming, which is why I have covered how to manage this so thoroughly. If you are a fairly new practitioner who has multiple deities who are interested in working with you, or if you are interested in working with them, I definitely advise that you take it slow. Research the deities who are reaching out or who you are interested in, learn about them, and slowly start contacting them as you feel comfortable. This is still something I do to this day. 

Everyone’s practice is different; I know people who have been working with the same deity for 10+ years and have hardly interacted with other deities during their practice. On the other hand, I also know people who were approached by several deities at once in the beginning of their practice, and who were consistently approached by various deities over the years as well. It all depends on the deities around you, what they feel you need, and ultimately, what you feel is best for your practice. Whether you wish to work with just a few deities, or many, that is up to you; just make sure that you are also taking your own health into account while doing so! 

How do I know if a deity is reaching out to me? 

I discussed signs a little bit earlier on in this post, however I did want to cover this question specifically. There are many ways deities can send signs to us or let us know they are around. For someone who is more in-tune with their psychic abilities, they may feel different energies when different deities are around. They may even be able to see, hear and possibly even smell the deities around them at times as well and this may be a way to figure out if someone new is around. Another easy method you can use is doing divination to check and see if a new deity is around. As I mentioned above, deities do use social media sometimes to send us signs and sometimes even to show us that they are reaching out. This is another instance where discernment is important; if you interact with a video about a certain deity on Tiktok, for instance, it's a lot more likely the app will start showing you more videos about that deity. So it's important to use other methods (such as divination) to figure out if a deity is truly reaching out, or if it's just social media’s algorithms at play. As I addressed above, sometimes deities will also send signs to you in your mundane life too; while it is important to pay attention to events that may be signs, I would recommend not obsessing over it. If a deity is reaching out, they will make themselves known to you one way or another. 

How do I figure out who is reaching out to me? 

There may be times where you know that someone is reaching out, but you are not sure who it is. Again, divination is a very easy way to figure this one out, there are many deity ID spreads online that you can find (and when I make a post going into more detail about divination, I may include some of those spreads in that post). If you are not able to do divination for yourself on who is reaching out, I recommend trying to ask a friend or finding a professional reader who offers deity IDs. I actually am a professional reader and I do offer deity IDs, you are welcome to inbox me if you are needing one! 

Another way you can attempt to figure out who the deity is on your own is to do research; if you are able to sense energies, or if they are sending you specific signs, you can look into the energies you feel and the signs you are getting to try to figure out who the deity is. 

What can deities help me with when I’m working with them? 

Deities can help with a ton of things, both in your mundane and magical practices. Deities can (as mentioned before) help with shadow work; they can help you to develop your psychic abilities, and they can share knowledge with you about both the physical and magical realm. They can teach about crystals, herbalism and nature magic for instance. They can help you develop and practice divination skills. They can help you to learn how to save your money, and help you with relationship issues. Just about anything you can think of, deities can help with! 

I would like to give special credit to Prince Stolas for helping me write this and edit it; he very much helped me with a lot of this and ended up channeling to help me with some of this info. This post is written in honor of him as an offering. 

I’d also like to give credit to my friend @astralscraft for helping me so much with this; the questions they came up with and the feedback they gave me for this post was incredible!