How to Protect My Energy (Especially Now)
There are times when protecting your energy means choosing silence over sharing, or stillness over movement, even when everything around you suggests the opposite. Energy protection means being able to register your own nervous system before you respond to someone else’s. This isn’t always easy. Many of us have been trained in attunement as a form of survival, conditioned to read the room, then shape ourselves accordingly. (As a trusted psychic and occultist, offering shamanic readings / psychic readings online, I find it’s especially easy to fall into patterns of over-attuning and have had to work on consistent energetic hygiene).
Protecting your energy from others, spiritually or psychically, asks you to unlearn that as the default. Or at least to recognize when it’s happening, and then to choose in the present moment if that is what you would like to keep doing.
That said, energetic protection is NOT cliqueness, being hardened, or invulnerable, sealing yourself off from the world. I’ve found that it’s more about noticing how easily you can disappear inside someone else’s needs, how quickly your system can contort out of a desire to meet what hasn’t even been asked for explicitly. If you tend to overextend, or mirror back what’s expected before you’ve even checked in with yourself, then it’s likely your energy has already left the room before your body has. This is vitally important to have awareness on, because when auric and physical body are operating from a place of separation or disassociation, there will invariably be an energy leak or an energy leaching. In extreme cases, when aura and 3D body are not in tandem, it can even invite unwell spirits to latch. Here is the thing: protecting your energy is a direct form of protection from spirits that harm.
There’s a certain politeness that’s mistaken for care. A kind of over-giving that looks generous on the surface but runs on depletion underneath. If you’ve been that person, you’re probably exhausted. You’re probably reading this hoping for permission to do less. You have it.
How To Tell A Real Psychic From A Fake
So are mediums for real or fake?
Coming from someone who professionally offers spirit mediumship readings (psychic readings), I realize that my line of work is naturally under more scrutiny, as it should be. That said, there are quality professionals in every sector, and unfortunately, also ones who aren’t. So if you’re in need of deep spiritual and psychic work and support, here are some suggestions on what to look for.
Tips for spotting a legit psychic versus a fake medium
Clarity: Look for someone who, even on their website or marketing materials, communicates clearly and doesn’t over-rely on buzzwords or trend-based spiritual vocabulary that’s vague or requires interpretation on your part. A trustworthy psychic and spiritual educator will use occult terminology with specificity and context, and will also be able to translate concepts into everyday, accessible language. I do my best to share a term and then define it so the querent is clear.
Specificity: If a psychic medium only speaks in general or vague terms with unverifiable information, those are red flags. I offer spiritual guidance that is specific to a person, situation, or social/familial dynamic, and can often provide time frames as well.
Impractical or unrealistic advice: It’s important that the psychic stays on topic and doesn’t distract the querent with unhelpful or intangible advice. They should attune to the heart of the matter, cut through distraction, and provide actionable or otherwise practical guidance.
The History of Friday 13th and Its Symbolism
Friday the 13th, often shrouded in superstition and unease, traces its connection to witchcraft through both ancient tradition and modern understanding. At the heart of this link lies the number 13, long cast as unlucky in Western cultures. Yet, the suspicion surrounding it belies its deeper, older association with the rhythms of the moon. With 13 lunar cycles marking the year, many ancient cultures, including those who practiced the craft, saw the number as a reflection of the moon’s power—mysterious, watery, Yin-based, and deeply sacred. Witches revered 13 as a symbol of fertility and magic, bound to the ebb and flow of the moon, and thus, to the unseen forces of nature.
What Happens to Your Energy Field When You Live Online
Are you wondering, how will AI affect us?
Living online, especially in an AI-saturated environment, doesn’t just affect your focus. It shapes how your energy is held, scattered, or absorbed. The shift is real, even if it’s invisible, and understanding it is the first step in protecting your field and maintaining clarity. I wanted to speak to what I’ve noticed with the advent of LLMs (large language models).
So how will AI affect us negatively? Or at all?
A few observations and thoughts I’ve been having lately are…
Oversaturation of Synthetic Frequency
AI operates at speeds and densities that do not match the organic rhythm of the human energy system. It delivers compressed, data-heavy interactions that can overwhelm the etheric field. Over time, this leads to low-level psychic interference, reduced clarity in intuition, and a sense of being constantly stimulated but rarely aligned.
How to Cast Spells: Effigies as Ritual Tools
What is an effigy? This blog post outlines their function, theory, and practice
What is an Effigy?
An effigy is a constructed figure or representation, most often humanoid, animal, or spirit-form, used in ritual, spellwork, or spirit mediumship. Effigies can be made from wax, clay, wood, cloth, paper, or even roots and are charged to act as a vessel, proxy, or link in magical operations.
How To Cast Spells with Effigies?
In occult and animist practice, effigies serve as intermediary bodies, giving shape and density to an intention, a morphic field, a spirit, or a target (human or non-human). This is grounded in sympathetic magic: the belief that actions performed upon the representation directly affect its referent. Effigies make the immaterial tangible, localizing and concentrating energy for magical working, ritual work, and mediumship (hint, this is a key to good psychic readings!).
The Purpose of Ritual Tools in Witchcraft and Spirit Readings
How to Cast Spells, Effectively: Function, Methods of Application and Best Practices for Candles, Conjure Oils, and Other Ritual Tools
The Purpose of Conjure Oils and Magic Candles in Witchcraft and Spirit Reading (Mediumship)
In both traditional and contemporary occult work, ritual tools act as technology—deliberate interfaces that structure and anchor the practitioner’s will, intention, facilitate altered states, and mediate spirit contact. Materia magica such as plants, minerals, body fluids that are then made into oils, candles, and effigies (I’ve written a dedicated post about effigies) serve multiple functions: focusing the practitioner’s intention, marking liminal thresholds, storing energetic charge, and offering a “body” through which spirits or energetic currents can be attracted, contained, or banished. Their use is especially pronounced in witchcraft, where precise handling of energy is critical through a spell.
History of Playing Cards for Divination: Origins of Tarot, Mahjong, and Cartomancy
Playing cards are believed to have originated in 9th-century China during the Tang Dynasty, where they were used both for entertainment and as a form of divination or gambling. Early Chinese cards resembled paper dominoes or money-suited cards and often reflected social structures and economic metaphors.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, playing cards had travelled west via trade routes, reaching the Islamic world and eventually Europe. Mamluk Egypt produced ornate, hand-painted decks, which likely influenced early European designs. When cards arrived in Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain, they evolved into suits representing the social classes: cups (clergy), swords (military), coins (merchants), and batons (peasants).
Reimagining Freedom: A Reflection from the Body
What do you mean by freedom (from a Taoist perspective)? When we hear the word freedom, especially in the West, it often conjures political definitions—rights, autonomy, liberty. And while freedom is political, I believe there’s a deeper, more embodied way to explore it. One that’s rooted not just in theory, but in practice.
Too often, freedom is equated with “doing whatever we want.” But from a Taoist lens, I’d like to gently challenge that notion. Because if freedom means acting on every impulse, how is that different from having no impulse control at all? In many ways, being ruled by urges is the opposite of freedom—it’s being held hostage by them.
The Fascist Playbook: How History Repeats Itself
Fascist and authoritarian regimes don’t emerge fully formed; they creep in, embedding themselves in the folds of society like a slow-moving terminal illness. The process is eerily predictable, as if dictators across history have been working from the same manual. Economic crisis, political instability, social unrest—these are the fissures through which authoritarianism seeps, promising “safety” while delivering control.
Resistance witchcraft that is built on positive grounds instead of negative grounds become more needed than ever.
Invisibility Spells
Invisibility spells are magical workings intended to render someone unseen or unnoticed, either literally or metaphorically. In many witchcraft traditions, they focus on shifting perception, diverting attention, or creating an energetic veil around the practitioner. Rather than making a person physically vanish, these spells often enhance one’s ability to move unnoticed, blend into surroundings, or avoid unwanted attention.
Signs That the Year of the Snake Is Already Taking Shape
Chinese Zodiac Year of the Snake: How the Year of the Serpent is Unfolding So Far. Animist spirit medium, Mimi Young, who offers spirit readings and other psychic mediumship readings, along with Chinese astrological forecasts, shares some clues on how the year of the Snake is unfolding in 2025.
Casting Spells: The Spell that Heals is the Spell that also Destroys
My body is harnessing a current of power I had not yet touched. Not simply the generative force of Wood feeding Fire, Fire turning to Earth through its ashes, and so on, but the degenerative cycle—the one that reaches across the pentacle rather than moving along it. Fire melting Metal. Metal severing Wood. My voice and body, in the context of my magic, are not just constructing; they are deconstructing in the same breath.
The spell that heals is the spell that destroys. The invocation that calls something into being is the same that banishes what was. (An example - if we are sick, the virus must die for us to heal). There is no birthwork without deathwork.
Signs You Are Experiencing An Energetic or Psychic Attack
Signs of a psychic attack, and what to do about it. A psychic attack occurs when negative energy is intentionally or unintentionally directed at an individual, causing energetic, emotional, mental, or even physical disturbances. This energy may come from another person, an entity, or environmental influences. Psychic attacks can be intentional, such as when a spirit is offended, or from a human through malicious spellwork or directed ill will, or unintentional, arising from jealousy, resentment, or unconscious energetic projections. Recognizing these attacks allows individuals to take protective measures to restore balance and safeguard their well-being.
Energetic or psychic attacks are real concerns for those who are attuned to the unseen. While not all discomfort or misfortune is the result of external malice, there are signs that can indicate the presence of negative energetic interference. Understanding these symptoms can empower you to take protective and restorative action, including collaborating with protective spirits, engaging in return to sender spells, and even making your own ritual supplies with warding in mind.
Check Your Head Before You Cast: The Ethics & Mechanics of Offensive Magic
Hexes and bindings are not light undertakings. They require a clear understanding of consequence and responsibility, and even more so, self-awareness. (In a recent study published in Harvard Business Review, a team of researchers revealed two types of self-awareness: internal self-awareness, which involves understanding our values, passions, aspirations, reactions, and impact on others—linked to greater satisfaction, happiness, and reduced stress; and external self-awareness, which reflects how others perceive us. Those who align their self-perception with others’ views foster stronger relationships and greater effectiveness in life).
There’s real risk when fragile, self-absorbed individuals, driven by vengeance, engage in workings that take on a darker hue—just as there is with overly emotional practitioners who find themselves remorsefully googling “how to remove a hex” the next day.
I can’t help but reference the Beastie Boys (I was a teen in the 90s). There’s a fundamental need to Check Your Head before one can proceed with the idea of Licensed to Ill.
Body Fluids as Materia Magica
I wanted to share about how we will be exploring body fluids and parts in Crafting The Arcane, my 12-part learn to cast spells series.
Menstrual blood or semen as connectors between creative work, nurturing and healing, acceleration, and in certain contexts, for resolution.
Urine for cleansing, territory marking, resistance, and banishing.
Saliva for voice related workings, and in some instance, for curses.
Animism is the Core Principle in Folk Magic
Together, we’ll explore the relationality of materia magica, the architecture and applications of spells, spirit collaboration, and the societal roles of sorcery—including protection and reversal to resistance and turning. Designed for both depth and practicality, the curriculum incorporates space for independent practice, spell reviews and group critiques to foster accountability, sharpening, and meaningful feedback.
In honour of this series, I’ll be sharing more frequently on IG (interspersed with blog posts here), exploring the classic botanicals and other potent materials that form the backbone of sorcery and folk magic—interwoven with insights from Daoist traditions.
And so today, I wanted to start with the core that holds it all: animism.
Understanding the Difference Between a Spirit and a Ghost, and Other Spirit Beings
Let’s explore the difference between spirits and ghosts, and other terms for invisible entities, such as sylphs, nymphs, djinns, familiars, and even digital spirits.
Ghosts vs. Spirits
The term ‘spirit’ is translated into Mandarin as ‘shen’, which encompasses not only the essence and soul but also the multidimensional, energetic expression of a being—unbound by physical 3D reality or, in some cases, never having possessed a fleshly or carnal form to begin with. To be specific, spirits can be a catchall umbrella term for all unseen, animate forces, in which ghosts can fall as a specific category.
'Kuei' (‘Guei’), or ghosts, refer to the distinct spirits of the human dead, especially ones who are considered homeless, that is, between this world we call reality, and the realms where spirits dwell. Many times ghosts are not aware that they have passed on, or are lingering because they have not received the closure they are seeking before they leave this plane.
What is Psychic Smelling or Clairolfaction?
Clairolfaction, also referred to by the terms clairolfactance, clairosmesis, clear smelling, psychic smelling, psychic scent, or olfactory mediumship, is an intuitive, extra-sensory gift that utilizes the perception of scents, that is not physically present, to receive messages from spirit guides and other spirit entities, verify information with the Unseen, or to gain insight from the past or foresee future events.
What is a Return To Sender Spell? Essential Information Around Reversal Magic
A return to sender spell, also known as a reversal spell, and sometimes called a magic mirror spell or boomerang spell, is a type of magic ritual designed to send negative energy, curses, or harmful and otherwise undesired intentions back to their source. It aims to reverse bad luck or ill-willed actions, restoring balance by reflecting the harm back to the originator.
Refining Your Spell Casting Ability: Prune to Bloom
In the context of a witch or magic practitioner, the role of being an editor is also an indispensable part of the craft. Spells may require specific techniques for a particular outcome or fruit you’re tending to. Editing can look like ensuring the language of a spell is precise, clear, and aligned with the desired intention. It can also involve removing unnecessary or conflicting elements to create a more focused working. The editing done within shadow work can identify fears and self sabotaging, catching and releasing them. Contrary to “anything goes modern spirituality”, effectual spells are not about just throwing in a bunch of herbs in a jar and hoping for the best. No matter what, effective spells require intentional vision, and an element of release. The witch must be willing to surrender, to allow ideas to come to maturity, to prioritize what matters, and ruthlessly examine what that may be. To edit in spell work is to know to say no more often than saying yes, with gratitude and curiosity. An editor’s mind within witchcraft is having the discernment to know that a hex or a counter spell is less about revenge and more about rebalancing. Editing is Yin work, and Yang evoked with precision and without ego. It means the sorceress is ruthless in compassion, is disciplined and eagle-eyed, and calls in the allies to attract, protect, defend, uncross, hinder, or destroy.