inspired both by this beautiful picture and by the fact that I finished reading Practical Magic today
Nayeon
“Do you ever just put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that’s what love is like; everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but for some reason you just keep going.”
Jeongyeon
“Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon.”
Momo
“Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs.”
Sana
“My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage.”
Jihyo
“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
Mina
“Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who’ve been in love with the wrong man too often.”
Dahyun
“Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you’ve had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.”
Chaeyoung
“Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that buzzing flies will stay outside, where they belong. Don’t think the summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year.”
Tzuyu
“No one knows you like a person with whom you’ve shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.”
just a reminder in case anyone’s interested, I do take requests
In order for any magical working to be effective you have to ensure that you are at peak performance. Making sure you are prepped mentally and physically ensures successful spells that don’t go wonky.
M E D I T A T E
Prep the mind by doing meditations daily, for as long as possible, leading up to the day you plan to perform any magical workings. Here is a beginners meditation for you to follow if you are new to meditation.
P H Y S I C A L C L E A N S E
Ritual baths are the easiest ways to cleanse the physical body before workings. Use special made bath salts or oils and cleanse yourself of all energies prior to working. Once you have finished your ritual bath, cover yourself in any homemade ritual oil. Do this right before your workings.
A P P A R E L
Ensure your ritual attire is properly cleansed before ritual. Use sage, salt or oils to cleanse this (a few drops of the oil or a sprinkle of salt will do, no need to go haywire). This is a step most people don’t think about beforehand, but your cloak needs to be cleansed before and after every ritual.
A M B I A N C E
Get yourself into the mind space by lighting candles, incense and playing “witchy” music before a ritual. Allow yourself to feel the magical space before actually making magic yourself.
S H U T O F F
Turn off your phone, TV and before doing any magical workings. This will not only get you in the right head space and allow you to concentrate better, but it will also help air out your energy or aura and free it from other frequencies that might disturb your magic.
L O C K U P
Close doors, windows and insure privacy for a period of time before ritual (this is if you practice solo of course). You don’t want anyone else’s energy fogging up the room for once, and you also want to ensure your full focus is on your intent and not worrying about someone barging in and interrupting your practice.
R E C I T E
Memorize your spell, it will be a lot easier to do a spell or ritual if you are confident in what you are doing. You won’t distract yourself by trying to find your spot on the page you are reading off and you will have more space or a free hand.
But still sometimes, when the wind is warm or the crickets sing… I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for. I just want someone to love me. I want to be seen. I don’t know. Maybe I had my happiness. I don’t want to believe it but, there is no man. Only that moon.
Is it sad that I still get a real magical buzz from lighting candles with lightning ⚡.
I love plasma lighters, they seem to work much better than gas and are better for the environment as you can simply charge them back up. A good gift for any storm witches.
Identification : The common variety has pretty blue flowers with an easy to recognise shape. Other varieties are while or mauve. Growing to around 3 feet (1m) with dark greed glossy leaves.
Uses: Lowers Blood pressure (Especially useful for breaking fevers), Pain relief from arthritis, gout and rheumatism….or killing wolves.
Try It : 1.3 part of tincture to 100 parts of Witch Hazel to make a liniment for topical application to the skin for reducing the pain from rheumatism.
Warnings: Classed a deadly poison it can be lethal if incorrectly administered. Internal use is banned in many countries. Contains Aconitine a foul tasting alkaloid which his highly toxic.
Parts used: Dried Roots (Collected in late Autumn when the stem dies back. Other parts of the plant may be used but have reduced properties.
Magic: Knowledge, Binding and it was one of the ingredients used to make flying ointment for brooms. In the middle ages it was used by those who had mastered invisibility.
Planet : Saturn
Element : Earth
Deities : Hecate, Carridwen
Folklore and History: Widley used across Europe, China and the Americas. The title “Wolf bane” comes from its use to poison arrows by wolf hunters. In the east indies the “Ferox” verity has been used in poison darts for killing Tigers and to poison wells. It could also however be used to counter other poisons making it a reliable cure for venomous bites. From the middle ages it was simply used as a pretty boarder plant, the pretty flowers with the unusual shape leading to the title Monks-hood. The Anglo-Saxon’s simply called it “Thung” their word for a very poisonous plant. Even the pollen is an irritant. Mung Bean Skin (Lu Dou Yi) is an effective cure for the poison. Folklore sees this herb used on weapons to fight Werewolves.
Plant Tips : Preferring soil that remains slightly damp so digging in rotten leaves or manure prior to the growing season will help. It can be raised from seed in early March using a cold frame.
“Do you ever put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that’s what love is like. Everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but you just keep going.”
Marvel movies have completely eliminated the concept of practical effects from the movie-watching public’s consciousness
Not just practical effects just like. Basic set design lol
How… How do they think sci-fi was done before CGI?
Really badly? Do you remember sci-fi before CGI? It was shit. And don’t say Star Wars because they went back and fixed that with CGI later.
*big sigh* *puts head in hands* heathens who’ve never watched pre-MCU sci-fi movies OR the unedited Star Wars movies, my beloathed
So first of all, most people agree that the majority of the “CGI fixes” in the Star Wars original trilogy (excluding minor visual/sound effects like lightsaber colors and blaster sounds) are unececssary, extremely conspicuous, and/or bad. This is not news to literally anyone older than about 20 who has consumed Star Wars content on any level. There are quite literally two very famous ‘despecialized’ fan projects explicitly dedicated to un-doing all of the shitty “fixed” CGI effects while simultaneously restoring the OT in HD.
And yes, I do, in fact, remember sci-fi special effects before CGI was the foundational cornerstone of moviemaking. It was not, in fact, shit:
Also, ironically I can show you by….*gasp* using fucking Star Wars, of all things. Welcome to the Tatooine pod race set of The Phantom Menace, which was not, as popularly believed, CGI’d but was instead a fully-built miniature set:
Yes, they built the entire set as a minature, built life-sized pod racers for the actors, then spliced the two together using digital effects. Yes, they did such a fantastic job that people think the entire set and scene sequence was basically completely CGI’d to this day. You’re fucking welcome for undervaluing the time, effort, and talents of set designers by implying that set design and practical effects inherently mean things will look like shit.
CGI also ages really poorly. What you think looks incredibly realistic now is going to look terrible in a few years. Just look at the original vs remastered Star Trek. They “restored” Star Trek around 2006 and replaced a lot of the practical effects with CGI, and maybe it looked ok in 2006, but it looks so bad and fake now.
In the 60s they built a whole model of the Enterprise, complete with blinking lights and beautifully sculpted/painted details. It looks stunning! Then they replaced it with that horribly smooth and fake looking cgi ship.
Just look at this beauty
You can see the model at the Air and Space Museum in DC
Unfortunately the remastered version is the only version available to stream, but you can still find DVDs with the original effect.
made in 1968 and still stunning 2001 A Space Odyssey
the designers worked with engineers at NASA to make realistic futuristic special effects using models and matte paintings no computer effects at all! - and incidentally inspired David Bowie to write Space Oddity, later performed in space by astronaut Chris Hadfield
The CGI of the original Jurassic Park may not be aging well (though arguably still better than some), but the practical effects will always look stunning.
I want to talk fantasy.
This shot was achieved with splicing and green screen.
This wild-looking shot (and similar manipulations) was famously achieved by having a professional juggler in a duplicate of Bowie’s jacket and gloves sitting behind him, basically with Bowie in his lap, doing the handwork while Bowie kept his arms behind the juggler. You may have seen a game based on this on Whose Line Is It Anyway.
This? Wires! Splicing! THE CGI TO DO THIS DIDN’T EXIST YET! (The juggler is hidden under the cape. If there’s a scene where he’s wearing a cape, that’s actually probably why.)
And this? This heartstopping shot?
This does appear to be from the version with CGI—
—CGI THAT WAS USED TO ERASE THE SHADOW FROM THE PRACTICAL EFFECT.
The shot itself hasn’t changed. The lift itself was done with wires and Bowie was given some propulsion with an air cannon so he could make that turn at speed. A minor amount of CGI was used in the 30th anniversary to “touch up” the work done in 1986, and one of the things they did was to remove a shadow on the wall from one of the wires.
How about this?
You don’t know it, but you’re looking at a practical effect. In real life, the Ruby Slippers are almost orange. That luxe, rich ruby color showed up on the film as black when the shoes were the correct color, so the costumers adjusted the actual costume to give the color they wanted.
A MODEL OF A HOUSE SHOT INSIDE A NYLON STOCKING ATTACHED TO A FAN.
MAN IN A COSTUME.
HORSES DUSTED WITH COLORED GELATIN.
And this? This is where it would’ve been useful to have CGI. Margaret Hamilton got really badly burned on the steam doing one of her entrance/exits, and ended up in the hospital. THIS is what you use CGI for.
You come into my house and insult practical effects?
I’ll just finish off by reminding you THIS IS ONE, TOO.
That last one, iirc, was there was a double in a sepia-toned costume, and the interior door and wall there was painted brown, so when it was lit and shot it all appeared to still be in the sepia tone of the Kansas scenes, and part of why Dorothy stepped back out of the frame was so the double and Judy Garland (in the proper blue-and-white costume) could swap.
You are correct. The double’s name, by the way, was Bobbi Koshay.
I guess I’m really old-fashioned, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE practical effects. They’re really ingenious - or sometimes they are very simple but trick your eyes. They’re a lot like old-fashioned magic, really, and I am absolutely in awe of them. Miniatures, camera angles, trickery - yes, give me that. I mean, computer magic can be impressive too, but - you know, when you see a fight in a snowy forest in Star Wars and it’s a sound stage with paper snow and a matte painting behind it, somehow I love that more than a digital décor, you know?
I also don’t want to think how horrible it must be for actors to act in an environment that’s basically made up of a stage covered in green cloth, when they could be acting in a set that’s been dressed and everything…
Decided to do a “ jar spell” a protection spell lately I’ve been feeling a little off like the outside world Is working against me but I decided it’s not going to succeed!! PSA( I’m not a Christian witch I just felt the need to do this spell and)
