Knotsense

A while ago I discussed the idea of crochet magic as a form of knot magic. To be a woman of my word and because it’s a craft that’s easy for me, that I already have plenty of supplies for, I actually did some crochet magic.

Now, because I’m Kemetic I used heka to enchant a pair of gloves I was making for Zolfyer. Since we’re moving and a lot of complex things are going on with our finances, I focused on blessings, prosperity, strength and creativity (because he’s an artist). It worked wonderfully, since I was basically mumbling and focusing over the gloves the entire process of making them, they exude energy and magic just picking them up. I am very pleased with the success of binding magic to the crochet. I have to admit I’m a little concerned that I charged the hook too though. I’m not always going to be enchanting things after all.

The crochet hooks are useful conduits, and I don’t particularly have to direct energy through my fingers since you hold your project, your hook and your yarn with both of your entire hands. I can’t say whether some materials are better than others as far as hooks go. I only have metal and plastic hooks (and bamboo, but those are a pain in the ass to crochet with because they provide friction. Excellent for beginners or with slippery yarns, not so much for more experienced crafters like me and less silky yarns. Gods help you if you’re using acrylic or cotton). If someone else uses other materials, like different woods, glass or something, let me know if you notice a difference yeah? Also, if someone both crochets and knits, I’m curious if the different crafts have different ease of use with enchanting.

Here’s an annotated version of the heka I used. It can be modified to directly bless hands, and if you throw arm related words in, it can be used to bless arms and arm-related things. Just the same, this heka can be used for anything worn on the hands. This is not exactly what was said, since I’m writing this down after the fact.

You are blessed. Your hands are full of blessings. Prosperity pours down on you. Your blessings are so great as to overflow. They pile into your hands until they are full, and fall at your feet to bless your home. They bless the very ground you stand on, and even your feet. Your whole life is full of blessings. Prosperity comes to you. It surrounds you and fills you up. You never lack for anything.

Your hands are powerful and full of strength. Your hands are that of Atum. They are the hands of Ra. Your hands are those of Ptah. You create your world with your hands. They are mighty and powerful. You are Khnum, who crafts his desires and breathes life into them.

You are Wepwawet, who scouts ahead. You find the best path to your goals. With your hands you open the way, you destroy the obstacles before you. You crush your enemies with your mighty hands. Obstacles fall before you, powerless to stop you. You find the best way, with your hands you open the gates to your desires. You are the Mighty God. You are He with a Strong Face.

You are Anubis, who protects. You are He Who is One with Ma’at, your hands are full of ma’at. You protect those you love, with your hands those you cherish are protected. You bless everything you touch, your loved ones are blessed by you. You exude ma’at from your fingers, prosperity leaks from your fingertips. Your hands are Anubis’, you bring calamity upon your enemies. You destroy those that stand against you. You bring calamity on the enemies of your loved ones. You are the strongest god. You are Lord of Heaven and Earth, Lord of Light.

You create the prosperity you seek. With your hands you create your blessings. Like Khnum creates with his hands, so you create what you seek. You make new what is broken, you replace what is lost. Like Anubis your mighty power binds what is broken.

You are Ra, who drives the sun boat. You brighten the world and drive away isfet. Your power is the mightiest. You are Set, the powerful god. You drive away isfet with your powerful hands. With your hands you slay the Demon Snake. You drive away the Snake of Isfet with your power. Isfet falls to your feet, powerless. The Snake is crushed between your fingers. Your enemies cannot stand against you. Obstacles fall away with no power. You are He Who Protects the Barque, and isfet flees before you. In your presence, isfet cannot stand.

You are Djehuty, the wisest god. With your hands you make powerful plans. Your plans are wise, they are full of ma’at. You make ma’at with your hands, you make your plans succeed with your power. Your wise plans succeed. Your mind is full of creativity. Inspiration comes easily, it overflows. As Djehuty your hands perfectly execute your plans. Your creativity is expressed beautifully with your hands. Your hands make true your inspiration. Your wisdom is shaped into reality. You succeed in bringing your thoughts to the world, you express your thoughts as you see them with your hands.

Your ideas are blessed. You bring your loved ones into your prosperity. Your blessings overflow from your hands and bless others. You create your blessings, prosperity is poured into your fingers. Only ma’at falls into your hands, your hands only spread ma’at. Isfet is not here, you receive no isfet, you give no isfet. It is defeated, it cannot stand against you.

 

(At this point I was almost done the glove. I then enchanted it with a way to maintain and strengthen the spell).

This spell will not fail. It cannot be broken, even if the threads unwind. It is strengthened when you are happy. When you are blessed it grows stronger. When you are prosperous it is renewed. When you succeed it is refreshed. This glove cannot be lost. If it is lost, its twin will find it, it will find its twin when it is lost. They cannot be separated. When its twin is refreshed, it is refreshed; when it is refreshed, so is its twin. When it grows stronger, its twin is strengthened; it is strengthened when its twin grows stronger. It renews its twin when it is renewed, when its twin is renewed, so is it. They cannot be lost, they will always find you. If you lose them, they will find you, if they are lost, you will find them. They bless the one who finds them, they bless the one who returns them to you.

After this, make sure the gloves know their twin, and make sure they know who their owner is, otherwise there’s no point to most of the last enchantment. I suggest having whoever you’re giving them to verbally claim them and wear them soon after they’re made and given to the receiver. Unless you’re making them for yourself, in which case claim them and wear them. Happy enchanting!

Asthma Again and Goddesses

So yesterday I finally got my room back. Yup, my sister moved into mine when she had Nephew and her room got turned into storage. Of course that meant when I got back to my mom’s house I had no place to sleep. Yesterday we finally finished cleaning up and arranging her room so now I have mine back! The only downside is I am allergic to dust, among other things, and that is one of the things that always sets off an asthma attack. Now, luckily my asthma has been relatively well behaved since I last wrote about it, though it’s still way too angry at life, I know this because my inhaler is nearly half empty (yay for a counter on it).

Anyway, the moving and cleaning and such set my asthma off as I expected. Now, as anyone with a chronic lung disease knows (or hell, something short term like a bad cold or pneumonia or flu) knows how exhausting it is. Not just that, but it completely disrupts sleep and restfulness. Like last night. I actually often dream of having an asthma attack if I’m having one IRL and last night was no exception.

It started off with me traveling with Sister and Boyfriend and some other random happenings. During this time there was a scene where I was in the car with Boyfriend and Sister and said something about Serqet. That I should pray to Her because this was getting to the end point. I actually prayed to Her in this dream, something like “Oh Lady of Lungs, Guardian of Breathing, come close to me”. We then went to Sister’s friend’s house who lived near my grandmother (this person doesn’t exist IRL) and she’s nice and kinda energetic and for some reason is trusted with babysitting Nephew. Now at this point I’m talking to her and she’s talking about a whole bunch of strange stuff that I can’t remember. I remember around this time I took my dose of albuterol for sudden symptoms. It seemed to work and the friend invited us out.

I don’t know why we accepted, but we did and I got into a van with her and Boyfriend and Sister got into another one. There was a bunch of people in both vans besides us and we went to this big house where people were outside and inside praying and listening to sermons. They weren’t Christians though, they looked more like Muslims in fact. I don’t know what this meant but I actually didn’t go listen to any of it, in fact I went to find Boyfriend and Sister. I was complaining about my asthma again and how I didn’t want to use my inhaler again, it was too early. I did eventually, but my asthma was just getting worse through the course of this dream.

Eventually I ended up using the inhaler four more times, each one not working and my breathing just getting harder. It was a horrible feeling, especially trying to use the inhaler and not even feeling like you’re inhaling the medicine into your lungs but just into your mouth. At a certain point the dream even had me going into my drawer to get my spacer that I haven’t used in years to try and make it easier to breathe in the medicine. I never use it mainly because I know how to properly use my inhaler without it, but I was hoping it would help and it didn’t.

Eventually I just went to find Boyfriend and Sister again (I had been exploring the house and talking to people) and had them call 911. Now, it takes a lot to get me to ask for an ambulance, I have a ton of tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years to stay out of the ER, but this was just like no, I won’t be stupid, just call the hospital. In the meantime I was somehow in my pajamas and wanted to change, which was like pulling teeth because for some reason I had no regular clothes of my own and Sister wouldn’t give me any of hers. Eventually she did and I set about finding someplace to change.

I went upstairs and found a huge bathroom, but it was open to the staircase and had a strange window on one wall. I tried to change as fast as I could before people came upstairs, but it wasn’t fast enough. Some dude came up and was just staring at me before trying to talk to me and grab me. I just could not get my clothes to cooperate and this asshat was creepin on me hardcore. Others started to come upstairs though and made him get back, but it was still an issue of privacy. Even though he got back, he kept staring and so did others. Eventually I got my clothes on and went downstairs where I met up with Boyfriend and Sister and went outside.

I asked about the ambulance, it still wasn’t here and that made no sense since we weren’t in East Jablip or something. Outside was a playground and children, including a mom and her two kids. I overheard their conversation with each other, both the woman’s daughter and son were having asthma attacks and they were waiting for an ambulance too. There’s weren’t too bad, not nearly as advanced as mine, but enough to warrant an ER trip all the same. The slow ass ambulance finally arrives, but with no lights on and just one. So then it was making the decision between who would go first, me or the kids. I looked at my fingernails since I had felt dizzy for a while and saw they were blue. Cyanosis. You have to be pretty fucking bad to get cyanotic, to have so little oxygen and breath that your nails are turning blue (lips and skin blueness are also a sign of cyanosis).

I showed my nails to the EMT who was acting like he was around kids who got an arm scrape as opposed to three people suffocating to death and he said “dingy, cyanosis, come on”. I woke up as I was getting in the ambulance. I was, in fact, wheezing substantially and was eventually forced to get out of bed and retrieve my inhaler. To say I wasn’t happy about being up at 7am from breathing troubles and a headache is an understatement. The asthma has bothered me at least half the day.

This of course had me waking up with Serket on my mind. The last time I wrote about my asthma, Helmsman-of-Inepu made a suggestion of talking to the goddess Serket. She is said to be a goddess of the lungs and of breathing (and water and scorpions and other venomous creatures) and could be a useful netjer to pester about lung health. He also suggested looking into medical heka about it as well. Now, I don’t know much about heka, or about this goddess, but ya know what? I’m willing to find out and knock on Her door. I’ve had this mild feeling that there was another goddess I wanted to get to know anyway, and She and Aset are friendly, so yeah. Conveniently, I found one of my asthma books that I never finished reading (like, I didn’t even finish chapter one O.o) last night, so I’m gonna get to reading that so I can do more on the mundane plane. Tonight or tomorrow I’ll make offerings to my three established deities and open a conversation with Serket. Maybe I’ll pose a question on magic to, well anybody now that I think of it XD Set, Aset and Anpu all have magic, the Jackal and The Lady are especially well known for it. Who knows, I’ll give it a shot. Wish me luck, I’ll have to make quite a few changes in my life and eating to move this along to better lung health.

And one last thing, completely off topic, I hope all the children from the shooting are resting in peace. I pray for their souls and for their families. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain that must be felt. Let this serve as a starting point for peace and peace talks that actually mean something and get somewhere in our country. May Anpu lead the dead to rest and Aset embrace the grieving families.