Hello my occulties!
Its that time again! I felt we were due for a QYAM article, especially since I’ve been getting lots and lots and lots of questions. 🙂 So without further ado…
Q: Why is Saint Martha black and holding a snake in one picture of her, then she’s olive-skinned in another picture of her, and then I’ve also seen her pasty-white with blue eyes, and (1000 other descriptions here,) – so are these different people?
A: Basically speaking St Martha is always stepping on, holding, or near some form of serpent or dragon in depictions of her, which is probably the only constant (even then, on the rare occaision she’s not with a serpent/dragon.) I’ve also seen her depicted in every fleshtone of the human rainbow. I’ve seen her depicted with brown, green, black, and blue eyes. She has been portrayed with hair-covered, or with just about every color of hair humans can have naturally. While she generally wears a green and red dress, a red dress with gold trim, or a green dress with gold trim, I’ve also seen her depicted in a purple dress, and a blue dress. Despite the myriad of appearances, all of them are St Martha, and I don’t mean the lady was a virtual human chameleon in life. 😉
You see, St Martha has been dead for almost 2000 years. Its unfortunate, but we have no contemporary descriptions of her actual appearance (at least that I know of) so we can’t be entirely accurate in depictions of her. Were I to take a guess, seeing as in life she was a Middle Eastern Jewish woman, she probably looked a dark olive color (like people who are native to that region today,) and likely had dark brown or black hair. There was some travel and trade during that time, so she may have had some European or African traits.
Why you see St Martha depicted differently is that often Saints who’s appearance is lost to us are depicted in a manner which would be most similar and/or appealing to the people who wish to petition her while also often containing some symbology/iconography which is relative to the saint. While I’d also say that certain color robes and particular depictions of her work better for petitioning her dominator aspect (for me at the least,) that does not mean that depiction is any more or less an accurate portrayal of Martha as the next. We do not know what she looks like. The representation is meant more to give you a meaningful symbolic image, iconography… Basically if I say to you “who is that?” and I point to a picture of Saint Martha, you might say “That’s Saint Martha,” but neither of us believe she is actually the picture, rather it is a representation of a being rather than the actual being. If you are to worship a picture rather than use it for symbolic meaning, that technically would be idolatry, which brings up a whole lotta Protestant arguments hurled centuries ago (and often to this day) against Catholics. 😉 However, the argument is that the image is not being worshipped but rather used as a focus point to give praise and honor to the spirit of a person who is blessed/sanctified. Hopefully this helps and doesn’t confuse you more.
Q: Do I dispose of the glass chimney/seven-day-candle jar with my ritual remains, or can I throw this out seperately?
A: In reference to all the spells here, unless I say otherwise, you can just put the chimney in the trash. You may also reuse the chimney for a pullout candle (they make them to fit the chimney) but I recommend if you do so that you use it for the same aim as the first candle you burned in there. If you totally want to preserve those glass tubes forever and get pull outs to put in them for the rest of your life, then just be sure to clean them thoroughly after each use (as in a cleaning off of magical energy – pre-emptively, I’ve gone over that in here, so please do not ask how because I’ve said already.) 😉
Q: Recently, I was reading that not all people who cast spells are also psychic. Doesn’t magic ability go hand in hand with psychic ability?
A: Definitely not! 😉 Amusingly enough, for some reason, a psychic who does not cast spells and has never attempted to use spellcraft is not an “odd duck” to people, but when the reverse is true – a spellcaster with no interest in trying to be psychic and who professes no psychic ability, people find this “weird.”
Psychicism and spellcraft are not related talents. Perhaps they often “ride together” in people insofar as natural predispositions and talents go, but this is not always so. Furthermore, there are different types of psychicism, and a vertiable smorgasboard of magical talents, too. While some people are outstanding with love spellcraft, others are amazing with banishing, or healing, or money spellcraft. Similarly, while someone may be an ace at using divinatory tools like astrology or tarot, that person may not be any good with psychic seeing (clairvoyance,) intuition, clairsentience (psychic empathy, psychic “feeling,”) or clairaudience (psychic hearing.) Just assuming all psychics are spellcasters and all spellcasters are psychic is a wrong assumption.
I actually know quite a few psychics who would claim no magical ability and have no interest in the spellcasting arts, and can name 3 spellcasters off of the top of my head who feel their psychic abilities are inadequate enough not to offer such services. My personal feeling on it is that we should accept people are just being honest in saying they have never chosen to persue one talent even though they had a natural ability in the other, rather than to think they are in some way inadequate as a reader or spellcaster because they offer one service and not the other.
Q: What do you mean when you say “My parents didn’t name me ‘Google’?”
A: I mean that if you ask me to point you to a specific spell in my blog for you to use, or to find you a specific spell, I will kindly point you to the “catagories” of this blog. It means, basically, if you want me to act as your search engine, I’m afraid I won’t do it. You need to do your own research. I am here for clarification, and to write you up new spells and articles instructing you on the practice and use of spells – not to act as a search engine for my own blog or for any other site. 😉
Q: My love-rival frequently antagonizes me, despite the fact that I am doing break up spellwork on him/her, and reconcilation spellwork on the person we are both emotionally invested in. What do I do?
A: If anyone is harrassing you, first you must contact the police to get them to quit harrassing you – that is assuming they are giving unwanted telephone calls, visits, or in some way antagonizing/threating you publicly. If the person is just talking a lot of trash about you behind your back, I recommend you spellcast to stop gossip, and to also turn their words against them (you may try a spell in this blog which I believe is titled “returning trouble to the troublemaker.”)
On the mundane end of things, if you’ve contacted police, and done – spellworkwise – what you can to minimize their antagonism, the next move is to stop reacting. Yep, I said stop reacting. That’s right, stop reacting. I don’t mean let the person come to your house and threaten you (that is when you call police to remove them for illegally threatening you,) I mean…stop giving them what they want, which is an emotional reaction from you. Do not ever engage in fighting with them, and do not show them that their bad and ridiculous and juvenile behavior in any way bothers you. Why? Because they are being a bully for the sake of the reaction. 😉 So, you’re gonna show them that they are ineffective…and maybe they will get arrested…and maybe also your reconciliation target will get to see what a complete nut job your rival is, while you’re calm, cool, collected (and er, blameless, considering you’re not acting like the nut job you’re rival is acting like.)
Personally speaking, if you have a reconcilation/love target who has to screw more than one person at once or who has to run around behind your back, I’d say just leave. Cheaters aren’t worth the drama…but you’re going to do what you want to do, so…I’m sure that I said that won’t have any impact on you seeking the love (or the return of the love) from the cheater.
Q: Sometimes you say in your blog to place/inter ritual remains in a specific spot, and then walk away without looking back. Does this mean I can never look there again?
A: No, it definitely does not mean that. Goodness, I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: If I could never look in a spot I interred or disposed of ritual remains in, I’d have to put both of my eyes out of my head or at least blindfold myself. 😉
What I mean when I say that is that you must walk away without looking back at that moment. This shows that you do not cast doubt (look back) on the work…its like walking off with a purpose, without looking behind you as you go. After the remains have been disposed of, if you just so happen to be going through the area and look in that spot like an hour later, this is not going to negatively effect the work.
Q: Do roots and herbs go bad? Like, if I have a bag of rose petals or a bag of say …high john roots, do those go bad after a specific amount of time?
A: Yes and no. My personal feelings on this is that an older dried herb may lose some of its power if its very old. If you’ve ever had an herbal tea, for example, you’ll notice some of the flavor and potency become less when they are exposed to air for a certain length of time. Its still “tasteable” (is that even a freaking word?) but not as potent as it once was. I feel to some degree this is also true of herbs and roots we use for spellcraft. So…if its older than 18 months or its just very old, then you may find its MILDLY less potent. I have found MOST PEOPLE do not notice this because it is so mild. So…I would not worry so very much that its an issue. Your best bet here is to keep your herbs in sealable airtight containers (zipper bags, or even airtight cannisters,) and to also be sure that you buy the amount of herb you need for your purposes. Whereas I frequently spellcast and rarely purchase less than four ounces of an herb at a time, your basic person who spellcasts for themselves would probably require less for their purposes.
Now, what IS a problem is mold and mildew. I had recently told someone of how I’d bought something like a ten or five pound bag of rose petals. Anyhow, this bag had come with a double order or something. Like, I mistakenly got a free gi-norm-ass bag of rose petals. 😉 Well, I had opened a small part of it, and then it sat for maybe a year…by a window. Guess what? Even though no visible moisture had gotten into this bag, it wasn’t properly sealed and the center of the roses was filled with (ew) black mildew. I had to toss it out. In those cases, the herb does spoil.
So…think of it similarly to potency issues of edible/consumable herbs (many herbs become less potent over time when exposed naturally to air and other environments, some faster than others,) and also that you need to take care to store the herbs in a cool dry place to avoid mildew or mold. If you do find mildew, mold, parasites or anything similar in your herbs, you need to throw out those herbs.
Alrightey folks, that’s it for this edition of Questions You’ve Asked Me! Keep those good questions coming, and if you’re new to “Questions You’ve Asked Me” please check out the whole catagory!!!
~Cat
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