babble-witch

[babble-witch]

You must stop holding out on us. Where did you get your green ocean binder/note cover?

Chicken! I'm flattered and delighted.

It is the hokusai wave journal from Oberon Designs in the teal color, and it is built like a TANK.

Many years ago, I lost most of my material possessions to flood damage. The journal cover, which was my bullet journal setup at the time and not my grimoire, was covered in disgusting skunky gunky disgusting flood water. After throwing out the inner contents, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I tossed the journal cover into...the washing machine. With some dr. bonner's liquid soap. On a normal cycle. I think I put it through the dryer, too, for a little, on low, though I ultimately dried it in the sun. Somehow, this was fine. Then I reconditioned with straight up coconut oil, and it's somehow both lusciously soft and still absurdly sturdy. This was years ago and this baby is still going strong, and I am not easy on my working items. I mention this because Oberon Designs did a limited release a while back with the Rider Waite Smith Fool card on it, and I bought it to make a more obvious grimoire, but because it's new it feels so stiff and like an entirely different product. But it isn't! It just hasn't had the shit beat out of it yet. So my point is: these things take a TON of abuse. They're absurdly well made. They're pricey, for notebook covers, but like. Worth it, imo.

More caveats: I don't actually use it entirely as intended because I have it set up midori traveler's notebook style, because I love a modular set up. Because it's the American half latter size and I have several elastics in there, I can just fold paper in half and scribble away on my makeshift notebook insert. Or I can print things out booklet style, and put that in there. And I buy those slim cheap roughly 5.5 × 8.5 kraft cover notebooks in bulk and burn through them as necessary, because for me, the grimoire is more a lab notebook and less a coffee table book, though the covers are so nice that they probably deserve a fancy grimoire.

in THEORY, the modular grimoire is also an all in one travel altar and all I need to pack for witchcraft while traveling. in actual reality, I've never travelled light in my life.

and now, because I've been given an excuse, thank you so much...here are some example pages. still sandy from last time I took The Book to the beach.

Starting with bookmarks:

For operative reasons, there is an antique key in there. I found a flat one, so that's nice, for the notebook format. The moon and stars charm is also from Oberon Designs--they tend to throw in a little freebie with their orders. I was trying to DIY a little in grimoire black mirror for a while, and none of my attempts really worked, and then i just made the St. Cyprian chaplet with the black mirror there, so--I'm not sure why this is still in here but why not. Why are there pressed flowers in here sometimes? It's a working item, baaaaebeee. All kinds of shit happens here.

reference materials:

like I said, I wanted a written by hand/printables for ease of use hybrid format so that's what I have. pictured: some sigils and reference notes for the dia de los reyes workings I always forget about until the absolute last minute so that I'm frantically running around the house very January 6.

etc

but fundamentally this grimoire is my grimoire so there's silly things in it because I am a silly person with ADHD who is also in a rush everywhere absolutely at all times. here is an origami dragon who lived in my wallet for many years--extremely effectively, so witchblr really does sometimes offer some fun yet useful ideas. also here are some fruit stickers? also my dog. also on the opposite page pictures I do not wish the internet to see. the big red envelope came with uhh...a mini waffle iron? shaped like a heart? and now houses a paper based charm. It's sturdy enough to take out of the grimoire and toss into a purse when necessary. also: kraft notebook with painter tape label.

further etc

I love journaling and notebooks in general so I have a lot of purchased and DIY folders and stuff in here, obviously. fu talisman from when I was reading the tao of craft. absolute banger of a talisman; very strong for what I needed/need it for. see also: pocket playing card meaning thing I do not use at all whatsoever. st jude card from seraphin station. ruler in case I need to make straight lines.

storage (and etc)

and here is my very DIY storage solution, which is: a slider ziploc bag and some medical tape. dr jose gregorio hernandez wallet card from, again seraphin station, who is also on here as @karmazain. background photo print of a Baron Samedi veve, for ritual focus or you know, whatever. big holy card of la caridad del cobre, aka our lady of charity, who is also Oshun or at least Oshun's catholic mask, depending on who you ask and how they look at it (maferefun oshun, of course, forever and ever). packet of black pepper and unseen similar packet of salt for some REALLY on the go magic, if necessary. big sticker / feng shui amulet of the three celestial guardians, which is usually tucked into the pocket flap meant to secure a notebook.

and ta da! far more information than you asked for! but I love witchy gear, i love talking about our gear, I LOVE LOOKING AT PEOPLE'S BOOKS, so.

[babble-witch]

Since I have seen a lot of posts about correspondences in witchcraft going around again, I wanted to stop for a minute and talk about how correspondences work and why you might want to make sure that you understand the correspondences you are using in your own craft.

This is likely an oversimplification, but I think that we can break down correspondences into three main categories:

Cultural Correspondences - these are often heavily steeped in the mythology and folklore of a particular region. They are often but not always correspondences of items found in that region. This is where correspondences become the most varied because, despite what you may have read in Those Bad Witchcraft Books, culture is not universal. A great example of this is that most Western cultures associate the color black with Death and Mourning but a lot of non-Western cultures have the same association with the color white. It stands to reason that this type of correspondence will work the best for you if you are sticking as close to the correspondences of the bioregion that you grew up in as possible (1) and that they will be most effective when used magically on somebody else from that bioregion (2).

Material Correspondences - these correspondences are based on the physical properties of the item in question. Some plants are edible, some medicinal, and some poisonous. Things with thorns can hurt you when you touch them. Quartz has high levels of electric conductivity. The idea here is that if Rosemary repels insects, it can be used in a banishment spell to repel that unwanted "insect" from your life. These are, in my opinion, the immutable correspondences - the item you are using will ALWAYS carry its physical characteristics with it into your magic. Spicy peppers will always be Hot and Burning, so-called "Weeds" will always grow tenaciously, and Sugar will always be Sweet. It is worth keeping in mind here that when using plants, the part of the plant may affect whether it carries that correspondence. Sometimes only one part of the plant carries a particular property - consider the difference between the sweet scent of rose petals that we use in love spells versus the sharp thorn that would be better used for protection. 3. Sympathetic Correspondences - The base concept behind sympathy is that two things that are alike in some way share a connection with one another that can be harnessed magically. The more alike that two things are, the deeper the connection. There are many ways that this is used in magic. A lot of herbal correspondences involve sympathy through the Doctrine of Signatures. This is the thought process that anything shaped like an ear can be used to affect ears/hearing magically. The Doctrine of Signatures gets rolled in a little bit with Cultural Correspondences as it is heavily rooted in Western herbalism, but it deserves a mention on its own. Another way that sympathetic magic makes its way into correspondences is the idea that an object from a particular place carries some of the energy of that place which can be harvested for magical intent. You see this in the use of bank dirt in money spells or cemetery dirt in baneful magic. This is also where Holy water, moon water, and stormwater come into play - here we are assuming that something that has been done to the water (being blessed by a priest, charged in the moon, or collected during a storm) carries an inherent energy that can be then transferred to your spell. Depending on your viewpoint, you may or may not agree with the concepts of sympathetic magic.

And that's the whole point of this. Witchcraft, as a whole, isn't the sort of path where you are supposed to proceed based entirely on blind faith. If you're flipping to a certain page in Scott Cunningham's infamous Green Book and finding the first money herb you come across to use in a spell, you are probably doing yourself a disservice. I suggest that you look closer. Not only will the physical correspondence change how your spell manifests (I've written about this before) but you may find that you don't even BELIEVE or AGREE with that correspondence at all. And maybe that's not important to you (but if that's true, why are you even reading this?). But I suggest that it should be. That understanding of a correspondence deepens your connection with the energy of the item you are looking to use. Moreover, exploring it further may give you all sorts of juicy ideas for spellwork to augment that energy.

Do you like my work? You can support me by tipping me on Kofi or purchasing an astrology report written just for you.

[babble-witch]

I’m banning my joint pain istg, anyway what types of spells do you do when you’re body is f-ing you over ( I will banish brain fog and joint pain)

Hey, good question.

My whole deal is that banishing only works if the problem is caused by something banishable.

My general experience with healing magic, while limited, is that it seems to be a very different school than binding and banishing (although there are of course overlaps).

For treatment of chronic symptoms I've found the following to be of use:

Evocation of gods of healing, especially those associated with water

Preparations of baths steeped in healing herbs and stones, of which a very useful addition is the use of a large quantity of salt or epsom salt to draw healing or sacred sigils on the bottom of the tub (make a special note to not add materials irritating to the skin or toxic after prolonged contact)

Evocation of angels, especially Gabriel, and also of Mother Mary, who I'm not sure if she is a lady of Healing, but her presence is deeply soothing during a chronic health meltdown, and you get the feeling that she can make a lot happen behind the scenes

Charms put on food and beverages to the effect of healing, and all culinary herbs of healing similarly worked over to awaken their magical effects. This is especially well done over traditional healing foods, especially foods and meals which are known to have antiinflammatory and restorative effects.

Creation of an infused skin-safe oil in combination with healing plants or stones (again, please do not poison yourself by accidentally overdoing it), which is then prayed over or enchanted with the aid of healing entities - use this to draw holy symbols or symbols of healing on the body where the pain is.

I wish you all the best, and that one day soon, your body will stop f-ing you over.

[babble-witch]

Hey Chicken, I have a question regarding your last post:

Do you think it's possible to achieve similar results by calling back the servitors I already have around and placing them in a "cocoon" instead? I figured that metamorphosis/evolution might be a better analogy than birth in this case, since they're already out and about. The rest of the process would stay the same.

Or could I just gestate then anyway and celebrate it as a rebirth?

I can see it on a symbolic level, but I've never tried it myself. I couldn't hazard a guess as to how it's worked with servitors made in other people's systems. You should try it and see how it goes!

[babble-witch]

[babble-witch]

MAGIC FOR THE CITY DWELLER

CHAPTER ONE: WELCOME TO THE CONCRETE JUNGLE, WHERE MAGIC NEVER SLEEPS

magic isn’t just for the deep woods and moss-covered stones. it’s not limited to candlelit covens or ancient runes etched in a sacred grove. magic is where you are. in the humming neon signs, the flickering streetlamps, the rhythm of bus doors opening and closing, in the energy of walking amongst a crowd on a busy street.

urban magic is about finding the mystical in the mundane, harnessing the city’s restless energy, and using every graffiti tag, liminal space, cracked pavement, and forgotten coin as a tool for enchantment. the city is alive—a churning, breathing, chaotic organism—and if you listen closely, it’s whispering spells in the wind between skyscrapers.

this isn’t some high-brow, ceremonial magic doctrine. here, we work with sigils written on coffee shop napkins, metro card protection spells, and phone screens charged as scrying mirrors. this is magic for the streets, for the punks, for the witches in walk-ups and studio apartments, for the ones who find the divine in the hum of a dive bar at 3 AM.

WHAT MAKES URBAN MAGIC DIFFERENT?

the biggest shift between traditional and urban magic is the environment. instead of sacred groves, we have community gardens. instead of rivers, we have storm drains. instead of bonfires, we have neon lights and power grids pulsing with raw electricity.

but just because the setting is different doesn’t mean the magic is weaker. city magic is potent as hell, because it’s charged with movement, history, technology, and millions of lives overlapping in real-time.

ELEMENTS IN AN URBAN CONTEXT:

• earth → concrete, bricks, asphalt, parks and park dirt

• air → the wind between high-rises, the whispers of overheard conversations, the endless streams of information moving across the city

• fire → electricity, neon lights, the heat of a crowded bus, a match or lighter

• water → rain pooling in the streets, sewer systems, fountains in public squares, water dripping from rooftops

• spirit → the city itself, the collective energy of its people, the ghosts in old buildings, the echoes of everyone who’s walked these streets before you

this practice isn’t about forcing the old ways into a modern setting. it’s about adapting magic so that it fits your world, your reality, your city.

THEORY & FRAMEWORK: CHAOS MAGIC, QUEER MAGIC, AND CITY SPELLS

urban magic thrives on three key principles:

1. ADAPTATION – use what’s around you. city witches need to be resourceful as hell. your “wand” can be a pen, a drumstick, or a crowbar if that’s what speaks to you (though a crowbar is a little extreme). your “altar” can be a windowsill, a shoebox, or even temporary like the back of a bus seat where you traced a sigil in the condensation.

2. INGENUITY – urban magic is subtle, fast, and often disguised. your ritual circle might be drawn in spilled coffee, your sigils hidden in street art, your glamour spells worked through fashion choices and body language.

3. INTERACTION – the city is alive. talk to it. work with the spirits of your apartment building, the crows and raven and wandering city cats who see a lot, the graffiti messages that seem to answer your questions in cryptic scrawls, street names that feel like answers to questions. trust your gut, keep watch for the synchronicity

MAGICAL SYSTEMS THAT THRIVE IN THE CITY:

1. CHAOS MAGIC: THE DIY APPROACH TO WITCHCRAFT

urban magic truthfully falls under the umbrella of chaos magic.

chaos magic is sort of like punk rock spellwork. no rules except what works. it’s the belief that magic isn’t just about ancient texts and strict traditions—it’s about belief as a tool. hacking reality, using symbols, and experimenting with what actually gets results. if something stops working you chuck it and move on to something new.

• create sigils from street signs, corporate logos, and subway maps.

• use “reality hacking” spells—like placing intent in a QR code or whispering an incantation into a social media post before it goes viral.

• swap out outdated correspondences for modern tools—your phone can be your scrying mirror, your router a beacon for intention-setting.

chaos magic thrives in the city because cities are chaotic. they’re full of random encounters, glitches, synchronicities waiting to be tapped into.

2. QUEER MAGIC: BREAKING RULES, BENDING REALITY

witchcraft has always been the domain of outsiders, rebels, and the marginalized. queer magic embraces fluidity, resistance, and radical self-expression.

• use genderfluid deities, archetypes, and spirits in your workings.

• cast spells at drag shows, pride marches, and underground raves—because those are modern sacred spaces.

• turn self-love into a spell, defying the narratives that say queer people don’t deserve power, joy, or love.

urban queer magic is loud, unapologetic, and built on the bones of those who paved the way before.

TOOLS & MATERIALS: USING THE CITY AS YOUR SPELLBOOK

urban witches don’t need fancy supplies. we use:

• 📱 smart phones – scrying mirrors, digital sigil boards, enchanted playlists

• 🎫 metro cards & transit tickets – protection charms, travel blessings

• 🗝 keys – for unlocking opportunities, closing doors that need to stay shut

• 🖋 pens & sharpies – sigil-making, graffiti spellwork

• 🪙 spare change – prosperity charms, offerings to city spirits

• 🧾 receipts – paper magic, petition spells, glamour workings

if it exists in your daily life, it can be a tool.

EVERYDAY SPELLS & RITUALS

🔮 PROTECTION SPELLS FOR NAVIGATING CITY LIFE

• “doorway ward” – rub salt along your threshold, whispering “no harm may cross this line.”

• “metro shield” – imagine a glowing energy bubble around you before stepping onto public transit.

💰 PROSPERITY & SUCCESS SPELLS

• “lucky coin” – pick up a found coin, say “bring me fortune,” and carry it for a week.

• “resume enchantment” – anoint your job applications with cinnamon for luck before sending.

💡 HACKING REALITY WITH CHAOS MAGIC

• “digital sigils” – set a sigil as your phone wallpaper and charge it every time you unlock your screen.

• “parking spell” – whisper “open the way” as you search for a spot—watch as one appears.

🌀 COMMUNITY SPELLS & URBAN COLLECTIVE MAGIC

• “city-wide sigil work” – drop the same symbol in different places and see what manifests.

• “full moon offerings” – leave a quarter at a crossroads to honor the city’s spirits.

THE CITY IS YOUR ALTAR

this is your grimoire, your spellbook, your guide to turning the city into a magical playground. don’t just live in it—work with it, enchant it, let it enchant you back.

magic is everywhere, babes. you just have to know where to look.

[babble-witch]

As someone whp has been less than responsible with ending spells/work, I'm working on a specific one to cut off all those things that I've forgotten about over the years, so that I have more of a blank slate to work with. (And also so I'm not feeding something I'm no longer using/want)

Currently based on earwigs.

[babble-witch]

Contracts:

Keep worrying about ongoing relationships with Others, especially devoting myself to a being when I might change in the future, and when bending the knee feels like giving my autonomy away, or reinforcement of hierarchy that I fundamentally disagree with.

Maybe my way of working with can be through contracts?

Know it works with some beings (like demons), but maybe trying with others? What would contracts with Deities look like, for example? Would that be considered insulting?

[babble-witch]

“The old magic persists thanks to it’s unfathomable power.”

No, the old magic persists because the new magic can’t run the legacy spells I need to do my job, and keeps trying to install spirits I don’t want or need onto my orb.

[babble-witch]

The only work around I've found for now is to only create beings split off from myself (or, at least, that's the framework I'm working under right now and it's been working well so far, but would probably not be super feasible if I end up with like. Fifty of those little guys to manage)

Thinking about:

Valuing autonomy as a core belief, and how to balance that with creating servitors or thoughtforms. Sentience without autonomy doesn't feel right. Maybe creating then forming deal? Power imbalances being natural to a degree, but how to work with that ethically.

Also: everyone else I work with has the option to stop working with me. The only energy I use other than myself other than that (in my charms, for example) are usually more passive "leeching." Kind of like using a water wheel in a river (I've used highways this way, for example). How does that fit into this framework. Hm.

[babble-witch]

In my experience, witchcraft books have such a steep learning curve it's like

[babble-witch]

There is such a random learning curve when reading witchcraft books it's like

[babble-witch]

What counts as a spell? Is intent all you need or do you have to do something before to get it all juicy and stuff.

Hi Anon! What a fun question, because there is no answer except this CAN OF WORMS you just opened.

There is no consensus anywhere as to what constitutes a "spell."

There is even LESS consensus as to what makes a spell go.

Intent is a good starting place. It is probably where you should start for all acts of practical magic.

But I find that in it's common form, the idea of intent + willpower = magic has been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Like if we're talking about "intent is everything" I'm reminded most closely of Chaos Magic. But Chaos Magic is not a school of "just set your intent and you've worked magic!". It's a very rigorously developed system.

In Hine's Condensed Chaos, he lists the third Core Principal of Chaos magic as technical excellence, and I quote:

One of the early misconceptions about Chaos Magic was that it gave practitioners carte blanche to do whatever they liked, and so become sloppy (or worse, soggy) in their attitudes to self-assessment, analysis, etc. Not so. The Chaos approach has always advocated rigorous self-assessment and analysis, emphasized practice at what techniques you're experimenting with until you get the results you desire. Learning to 'do' magic requires that you develop a set of skills and abilities and if you're going to get involved in all this weird stuff, why not do it to the best of your ability?

Later in the book, Hine likens "magical powers" to the concept of achievements, and goes on to say:

Something which is an achievement is the result of practice, discipline, and patience.

Shortly after:

Chaos Magic is not about discarding all rules and restraints, but the process of discovering the most effective guidelines and disciplines which enable you to effect change in the world.

(In above quotes, all emphasis my own)

But these ideas get taken - and I'll give a big nod to the LOA which is just the worst kind of brainrot for encouraging the "intent is all that matters" mindset - and the ideas get diluted so much that people are literally out here saying, "so all those people who spend years studying magic in order to get results are buffoons? All I have to do is imagine what I want and it will be delivered to me? All humans since the start of history just have to decide they want something and it will happen in a miraculous manner?"

(Not you, Anon. I'm just in a mood)

In my mind, yes - something beyond intent must occur in order to make spells go.

But what?

Anon, have you ever heard that dumb belief floating around that all herbs in a spell can be replaced by rosemary, and all stones in a spell can be replaced by clear quartz, and these two things are "universal substitutes"?

I am 95% sure that this nonsense was based on two very popular dictionaries Cunningham wrote in the 80s, the Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic, and Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.

In the very long entry for Clear Quartz:

Quartz crystal is used as a power amplifier during magic. It is worn or placed on the altar for this purpose.

And from Rosemary:

Rosemary is generally used as a substitute for frankincense.

And I believe that someone somewhere got the idea that since clear quartz amplifies all other powers, it therefore somehow magically Ditto-copies all other powers, and like a shapeshifter somehow becomes something it is not nor ever was.

And, you know. What's the difference between subbing out frankincense and blackthorn between friends?

These beliefs have become so popular that sometimes when unscrupulous blogs rip off entire Cunningham encyclopedia entries and paste them into tumblr posts (without credit), THEY INCLUDE THE EXTRA MADE-UP BIT ABOUT ROSEMARY BEING A UNIVERSAL SUBSTITUTE.

Anon, your question is "is it just intent or do we need other stuff to make it go," but sadly,

IMO common beliefs about the stuff that makes spells go have also been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Because if I sat here and said, "hey Anon, it's not just intent, you also have to use correspondences ^-^/" then the very first thing you are likely to run into is absolute nonsense about correspondences. IMO, effective utilization of correspondences is a skillset based in research, theory, and technique.

Or if I said, "you also have to raise energy! 👍", this may be mistaken to mean, "set intent but also visualize white light inside of a candle," because the concept of raising energy and visualizing has been (IMO) diluted past the point of utility for most people. I believe that effective utilization of energy work is a song composed of many notes and chords, several of which you must practice before you can utilize it.

And to complicate all of this, which non-diluted things in which combinations you need to make the spell go depends on what paradigm you operate off of, because while there are approximately one billion ways to do magic that works, my currently very dim worldview is that most people who are talking about magic are doing magic that doesn't work,

and in my opinion the actual basis and reasoning, like the rationality behind the magical systems is really important. Because you need that shit to understand what it is within that system that makes the spell go.

And you need to understand what makes the spell go to make the system fit into your life without breaking it, and in order to troubleshoot problems without making things crumble further.

Because when people don't understand the basis and reasoning you end up with "rosemary is a universal substitute" and "imagining white light makes the spell go."

There are a few circumstances where you can totally strip technique from theory and be successful, but there are also a hell of a lot of people out here feeling shit about their practice because their spells never seem to work.

So.

I really just recommend choosing what school of magic you would like to learn about and participate in, and reading an introductory book on it.

This is because it is the job of introductory books to explain the principles and theories behind a system of magic, and most importantly, what makes the magic go, and a step-by-step primer on what you, the practitioner, are supposed to do to make that kind of magic go.

Despite above rambles I'm really not a Chaote, so I can't recommend a strong primer. As far as I'm aware, Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll is a core text.

For Traditional Witchcraft, try The Crooked Path by Kelden.

For something more Wiccan, I can't recall having anything bad to say about Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn.

If either of these things are too Witchcrafty for you, try Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, which is still witchcraft, but it hits different.

For a general primer on helping your spells go, try Elements of Spellcrafting by Jason Miller.

[babble-witch]

Servitor Design Template

As used for tech magic, but can be an outline for general servitor creation. It is suggested to establish these in this particular order, as function/behavior informs shape, and shape informs physical requirements/limitations.

Function: [what it does, expand into multiple numbered functions to prevent confusion, give explicit active/command functions as well as a passive/downtime function]

Code of Conduct: [ethics guidelines, parameters for offensive/defensive action, parameters for giving out information and practitioner privacy]

Motivations: [why it seeks to perform its function(s), what interests it, does it have a drive to achieve a goal]

Feelings: [how it feels, why does it seek the motivations, is it lonely/bored, is it subservient, is it happy, etc, use feelings to give the motivations meaning]

Behavior: [how it works, what processes does it go through in order to achieve motivations and function(s)]

Energy: [how energy signature feels/looks, be descriptive in color, texture, feeling, smell, any senses derived from manipulation of above data]

Alignment: [elemental type, if any, primarily used to associate servitor with a specific type of magic as defined by the system of the practitioner]

Shape: [type or species, drawing or using a doll maker for ease of design, does not have to match energy feeling colors/senses but helps to be similar]

Name: [name, something easy to remember/spell in case of emergency]

Residence: [where it lives during the downtime, give it a home to return to]

Food: [what it eats, whether aether/astral food or energy sources, give it multiple sources of energy]

Resonance: [object that can be used to call it or, alternatively, object that it is bound to, not immediately necessary]

Limitations: [where it can go, what defines servitors spatial limitations and boundaries, does it require the practitioners permission to go past boundaries]

Abilities: [what it can do, include magical abilities here, offensive/defensive, healing, travel, and communication]

Referenced from “Servitor Magick” by Oliver P. Hart (on Kindle).

My personal commentary:

Servitors are intended to be entities that feed off of a practitioner’s energy and exist only as that practitioner demands. 

You can design alternatives for your servitor to decide/enact as their personality is established – if they want a secondary human/creature form for shapeshifting, if they want to be able to learn new abilities/functions, etc. It is important to note in your design that these additional traits or alternative actions are to be approved by the practitioner first. 

Although servitors are meant to be dependent on the practitioner, one should consider their lifespan and how you intend to use them. If you would like to give your servitor extra motivations/feelings that guide them to become more independent (with permission first), be sure to plan how they would potentially survive. I designed a drive for my research-oriented servitor to bond with a consenting independent entity in order to learn new things and live a full life.

Most servitors are destroyed/reabsorbed by their practitioners, and as a whole, servitors do not have independence or negative feelings towards being reabsorbed. Unless an alternate lifestyle is programmed in for them.

Tech magic servitors can be written in code or in text in a secure program and activated by the practitioner’s method of choice, and can be altered as desired. If your servitor has a form of sentience, I would suggest speaking to them before making changes. 

[babble-witch]

Once again in defense of witchcraft being not dangerous and fucking fine to do

I am pretty sure that some witches buy into worldviews that actively frame their own magic as inherently dangerous and unbalanced.

And I think that might be what's going on, at least some of the time, when witches eschew preventive cleansing and protection.

I think that we live in an active magical ecosystem where a lot of things are happening all the time, and almost none of those things have anything to do with us.

But somehow protection magic has developed a cringy veneer, as if in order to need it you'd have to think you're a main character who's being actively targeted by evil witches and spirits.

It seems that some witches have gotten the impression that in order to be well-balanced, they've got to believe that wolves don't exist. Neither do storms, diseases, accidents, or the unscrupulous.

Cleansing has gotten the same bad rap, I feel. Inasmuch as cleansing is removing unwanted energy, a lot of witches seem to live in a world where all energy is perfectly good and natural (but they're not love-and-light witches, how could you accuse of such a thing), and not only that, but all cleansing completely strips something of every possible energy. A cleansing can destroy the utility or value of magical objects.

Just like sweeping your floor automatically destroys the floorboards, underlayment, and foundations of your house, leaving nothing but dirt and crumbled plumbing.

So protection is unnecessary for normal people, and cleansing is at best destructive. (I'd be terrified to see the curses of many witches, given how powerfully withering their most basic cleansings are.)

But it's all well and good, and this part I actually do not mean sarcastically at all - it's all well and good, because keeping up a cleansing and protection routine actually takes a decent amount of time and energy.

Depending on your methods it can get pretty streamlined. But you're still putting something on your plate - ten minutes here, five minutes there. And it can kind of get away from you.

I mean, if you start teaching yourself how to cleanse unwanted energies, then I expect by and large you're going to end up able to sense and identify unwanted energies. And then you'll start finding more magic you could be doing to deal with more problems you've learned to identify.

But it does go on: then maybe you'll get a bit overwhelmed cleansing the home, so you'd rather make a protection for the home to just keep unwanted energy out. And then that takes maintenance. And then you find a better way to do things.

And you end up doing plenty of magic.

And, if you believe that certain types of energy can accumulate around a person and make problems, and sending that energy away is therefore is helpful; and if you believe that preventative magic can stop bad things from happening; then a regular cleansing and protection routine will help things get better and go better.

I'm not saying that everyone should do preventive and maintenance magic all the time. I'm not saying that people should believe in things the same way I believe in them.

What I am saying is, hey.

Isn't it kind of weird that some witches seem to have worldviews that frame their a lot of their own magic as inherently dangerous and unbalanced?

Isn't it also kind of weird how many witches say they wish they could be doing more magic?

But no, not that kind of magic. There's no problem to chase, and that kind of prevention isn't for them, they're not a main character. No, not that kind of magic, it's at high risk of being destructive. No, not that kind of magic, that would constitute stealing from others. No, not that kind of magic, that's unethical. No, not that kind of magic, it might have unintended consequences. Also, it's unethical. Also, it's cheating.

I kind of have a conspiracy theory, okay. It's that many witches who start out eschewing spiritual hygiene (like, cleansing and protection routines) do so because they want to establish that the magical ecosystem around them isn't inherently dangerous or bad. They don't want to be the kinds of witches who think all this magic stuff is dangerous.

And I agree with that. The magical world around us isn't inherently dangerous or bad. Not any more dangerous than the mundane world around us.

But I do think a lot of witches do view their own magic as dangerous and bad. Sometimes that badness is because magic is seen as inherently destructive (like cleansing that destroy, money spells that kill and maim relatives, and job spells that strip free will from hiring managers).

At other times, the badness stems from scrupulosity: that using magic itself is inherently immoral. Protection is bad because using it demonstrates self-centeredness and egotism. Money spells are bad because you're stealing (or cheating). Binding spells are bad because you're putting your needs before others. Conjuring anything at all - from a new friend to a lucky break - may be a bit selfish, I mean, can you imagine someone who could do magic just conjuring things for themselves, instead of only helping others?

And then witches wonder how they're meant to engage in their path, when there's hardly any magic that a moral, well-balanced person would ever do.

Well, anyway. I haven't got a proper ending. Thanks for listening to my essay. I hope you're all having a nice November so far.

[babble-witch]

So this is a silly question but I always wanted to start with paganism. And one fo the reasons is that I have been having this strange dreams for years by now.

They are all repetitive and way to constructed to be my own mind (I don't say it couldn't be me looking too much into it)

But in these dreams there is a entity, it has some weird noise I can't make out their gender. And they will just ask about my days, they will leave me weird cryptid messages about my past, or the moon.

They always leave me with a big scent of lavender stuck on my head, and ever since this started, a lot of lavender stuff and theme had come into my life without me even looking for it.

Any idea of who they could be?

I'm sorry to disappoint you, Anon, but I don't do entity identification through Tumblr anymore. Identifying an entity requires not only a lot of information, but a lot of time spent communicating with them - and I just don't have that time to spare anymore. But - teach a man to fish and all that - I'm happy to walk you through my process for how I go about identifying an entity, especially when you don't have a lot to go on.

Major Recorded Entity The easiest thing to either rule out, or get a solid confirmation of, is if the entity in question is a popular god or some other famous spirit. In your particular case you have a two concrete things to things to go on: The lavender scent and the messages about the moon, I would start by Googling like "Lavender Folklore" "Lavender mythology" maybe even "pagan deities associated with lavender," though I worry that last one will get you people's personal associations and UPGs rather than anything from the historical record. You could also break it down by culture if you wanted: "Greek god associated with lavender," "Egyptian god associated with lavender," etc. Then repeat your searched with "moon" instead of lavender, and look for overlaps. You're almost definitely going to get more moon results than lavender, so use it as a possible filter on your earlier results. Keep a list of any entity who turns up in this research, and specifically mark anyone who is particularly interesting to you for any reason. Next, if you haven't already, get yourself a divination tool, it's time to ask your visitor some questions! Go down your list and ask your visitor if they are the first name. Then the second name. Then the third. Do all of the names. Hopefully you're using a divination tool that has some nuance to them, like tarot, or playing cards, something else that can give you a "Yes, and..." or a "No, but" instead of just a flat yes/no. Adjust your list to yes, no, maybe. Be aware that you are likely to have more than one name in each list if you start with enough options. This doesn't mean that this entity is all of the yeses, just that it could be one of them, and you need to gather more information.

Common Type of Spirit If the above doesn't net you anything that feels like a solid enough yes after a couple of rounds of research and divination I usually move on from recorded deities and try to classify the entity as a broad type of spirit. My personal categories are: Deceased human, The Fair Folk, Elemental, Angels/Demons, Animistic spirits of Nature/Places/Objects, Household spirits, Creatures, and misc - but everyone has their own categories that they prefer to work with. Grab that same divination tool from before and ask the spirit to describe themselves. See if anything in the divination makes you think of one of your categories. Do you get a lot of nature imagery? Maybe they are a nature spirit. Do you get a lot home and hearth imagery? Maybe it's a household spirit. Etc.

Familiar Spirit I don't mean this in the normal familiar spirit sense, like a witches' familiar, I mean is this a spirit familiar to you in some way. Could you know them or have encountered them somewhere other than these particular dreams. This is another round of divination. But just like the last one you can ask this question once and have a conversation about it through your divination tool. Ask if you've encountered them before, if so where or how.

Unrecorded Entity If you don't get anything from any of the last steps that helps you identify the entity then you've reached the point that I usually start at. This entity is unrecorded, meaning they don't exist in human written culture. They may have had contact with people before, they may not have, either way, records of it either don't exist or didn't survive to the present day. You can have a really wonderful fulfilling relationship with an unrecorded entity, but you will have to chart the course of that relationship yourself. For any of the above types of spirits you could probably find someone who had experience with either the specific entity of the general type and sort of follow in their foot steps, but that's not necessarily possible with an unrecorded entity. Do I think it's likely that your dream visitor is an unrecorded entity, not necessarily, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the possibility.

You can also start identifying as pagan and developing a practice without involving this entity, either at first or at all. Maybe you've always love Greek mythology and want to start worshiping them! If so, do that! Get comfortable with your practice and see what comes of that. Maybe things will become clear! Either way, if you choose to join us, welcome to the community!

[babble-witch]

Want to get some nice quality birdseed to put on my windowsill to a)befriend the local crows and b)try out some fortune telling from the shapes they make with it before it's gone but I think it might give my cat a coronary