A Bearwytch Guide to Pokemancy

Pokemancy 101

In the earlier years of this particular incarnation, I found myself in a time of adventure and aesthetics, born into the 90s. Once upon a time, I was gifted a gameboy, and a copy of Pokémon blue. Little did I know the journey I was about to embark on would span decades, and lead me to my current position as a Pokemancer.

Growing up, Pokémon was frowned upon by a lot of the more vigorously fundamentalist Christian folks, amid claims of Pokémon being demonic in origin. They were not totally inaccurate, although I find their stance questionable, but not everyone is a fan of demonolators or pop culture magicians- but that's a rant for another day.

Pokémon draws inspiration from many cultures and mythos, different philosophies and ideologies, and uses symbolism any well learned mage should be competent enough to pick up. From the Hopkinsville goblin in North America, to Loki's children, from the Japanese Yokai to Hawaiian night marchers, from Bruce Lee, to the concepts of yin, yang, and wuji, these Pokémon represent aspects of the self, the tarot, the kaballah, etc.. Each Pokémon is equipped with a typing, an element, and abilities which work as easy references in deciding which Pokémon to work with.

In Pokémon games you are generally started with a Pokémon of one of 3 of the 4 elements, fire, water, and earth, and in total, as of this moment, there are 18 elemental types of Pokémon, which are as follows: Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Steel, Normal, Fairy, Dark, Flying, Ghost, Poison, Ice, Ground, Rock, Dragon, Fighting and Bug. Each of these elements can correspond to a blend of the 4 elements and spirit, in different combinations.

As of the sword and shield games, there are about 890+ Pokémon with the downloaded content, and around 11 thousand cards- with other variations in different languages not included.

Within the hierarchy of Pokémon, there are legendary Pokémon, who act as godforms in the Pokémon Multiverse. Each one of these is imbued with a primal power of great creative and destructed potential, and are worshipped in various regions as deities. Some of these godforms reside in the physical world, and dwell among mankind, usually isolated so they don't cause a ruckus. Others reside in their own dimensions, making research on them slightly more difficult to observe. These we can gain familiarity with by reading their origin myths, and connecting with them. Most of these legendary Pokémon are genderless, with the exception of 7 gendered species. Related but separate in this list is Eternatus, our chaos dragon, Choronzon, who grants Pokémon immense power, but also immense destruction and madness.

After the legendaries in the hierarchy come the Unown, although really they have just as much creative potential as Arceus the creator. They too dwell in their own dimension, although they frequent tombs and ruins in the Pokémon world, oft disguising themselves as hieroglyphs. The unown in their own dimension are unmanifest, but when they come together, a great power emerges. These unown are based off of both Greek and Cryllic alphabet and aesthetic, and number 28- 26 letters, and exclamation and question marks. Just like in our dimension, these letters have meanings, and when combined, work well as gliphs/runes/spells/sigils, what have you. They communicate through both telepathy and using electromagnetic waves. They were present at the time Arceus created the realms, but didn't take part in the actual manifestation, for reasons unbeknownst to myself.

A notable and spooky entity slips into place here, extremely powerful in an entirely different way, Missingno, who birthed itself from chaos.

Next down the hierarchy, IMO, are the Pokémon that can move between worlds and realities. Some Pokédex entries show certain species of Pokémon being capable of walking between the realms of Pokémon into our present reality, in varied locations in South America, China, and others. Other Pokémon have the power to travel through space into a different reality known as Ultra Space, and my personal favorite are the slew of Pokémon who can transport people to the spirit realm, known in Pokémon as the ghost world/ghost realm.

Mythical Pokémon and Ultrabeasts are tied for position, being powerful and rare, but not as rare as elusive legendaries. These Pokémon all have quests associated with them, and relate to parts of the mind- ego, higher self, etc.

Finally we have your extensive list of just about every other Pokémon, which are all cool in their own right, and have amazing origin stories, and differing abilities, but for all intents and purposes, aren't really as rare as the others. Each one has merit, and each has extensive meaning for divinatory purposes.

Exploring the world of Pokémon in our magical practice is just as thrilling as growing up playing the games, but perhaps we never really grew up in that sense, and never really stopped playing and building worlds with these creatures.

This information comes from the Pokedex, game lore, common sense, personal experience, and a decent grasp of occult symbolism. I hope it finds you well, and can be of some use to you.