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[boarsteeth-brujo]

Give me household magic, give me spells crafted by grandmothers when they were learning how to live, passed down not from teaching but in that osmosis of children observing their mother everyday, give me simple charms made in the evenings and left on neighbours doors to keep gardens free of bugs and eaves from leaking, give me potions for cleaning or boiling or preserving, pantry potions every house has above the kitchen sink, give me words of power to call the cows down from the pastures and chase away foxes from the chickens and calm the horses when they frighten, give me household magic, small magic, family magic, it's not textbook, it's rough technique but it works and that's what matters

[boarsteeth-brujo]

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Gringos a fucking decade ago: Lol, these Mexicans are so fucking stupid. They really think you can cure illnesses and whatnot by visiting some spiritual quack called a "kerandayro" and have them rub an egg on you while chanting a bunch of jibberish

Gringos nowadays:

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Caribbean Folk Saints and Mighty Dead: A Precursor

We all have family members who take on an almost Mythic quality after they pass on. They may have been a character in life, or a perhaps a spiritual practitioner. Maybe they were known for their generosity, or lack of it, or their strength or brilliance. Nonetheless, it is someone who, even in death, still makes an impact. In personal practices, we may work with these ancestors for guidance and healing, but what happens when their influence spreads past your family, into the local community or even entire country? This and many other strange circumstances often explain the origin and powers of Folk Saints and Elevated Dead. I will be going into the various Folk Saints and Deified Ancestors of the Caribbean, (including Florida), but before I can do that I need to explain where these spirits come from, and why they are so potent in our everyday lives.

What are Folk Saints and Mighty Dead?

Folk Saints and Mighty Dead are spirits of dead people who were either elevated in life, or became elevated after death. Their elevation often is then connected to their ability to grant various petitions made to them. Some of the Folk Saints I will be talking about were used to disguise other figures who were outlawed by the Colonial government at the time, while others are various figures of marginalized communities who gained sorcerous or otherworldly reputations after death.

Cuba and Florida are Lands of diaspora and syncretism. Many different traditions abound and each tradition has multiple lineages, so the classification of spirits differs depending on the worldview of the person explaining. Some practitioners work within a framework of Catholicism, some use elements and some flat-out reject Catholicism completely for decolonization purposes. For this reason, I have differentiated Folk Saints from the Mighty Dead.

Folk Saints will include those spirits who are worked with in a Catholic context, but are usually not canonized or not at first. On the other hand, the Mighty Dead will include spirits who are venerated amongst Indigenous and African traditions in Cuba as well as the surrounding areas, as to not group them under a title created by Colonizers. If you are Cuban or Caribbean, these Folk Saints and Mighty Dead offer power at a closer degree because they are more proximal to your Spirit Court, and may even already have bonds with them.

It is important to note, spirits like Orisha and Cemí have very specific protocols, manners and taboos when approaching them, so this is best done with the help of a priest, such as Oloricha or Babalawo, or a Taíno Behike. These are not energies you simply feel drawn to and work with. Orisha and Cemi are in some cases Deified Ancestors and others Personified Forces of Nature, among other things. This varies from the Ancestors and Spirits I will be discussing in this series.

Benefits of Working with The Mighty Dead

Folk Saints and Ancestors give us a closer connection to the divine through their proximity to the Divine and their individual virtues and personalities. As with all spirit relationships, you will get out what you put in.

Folk Saints who are related to the Land you live on, such as Uncle Monday or Bessie Graham for us Floridians, can help to deepen your connection with the local community. They can help you to further your relationship with the Earth and introduce you to other Land spirits.

Spirits related to your Ancestry can help to work through generational issues. Some ancestral spirits, like José Martí or Guamá for us Cubans, are related to ideas of War, Rebellion, and overcoming oppression. These spirits can be worked with for the same pursuits of defeating oppressors in the modern day. Each spirit has a story and is multi-faceted, so it really depends on what your connection is to the Spirit and what you are capable of offering them.

How to Work with Deified Dead

Working with these spirits is individual to each spirit, based on what their heritage is, as well as their personal tastes. When starting out, it’s best to keep things simple. Instead of going and creating an entire altar dedicated to a spirit, begin by praying about it at your Bóveda or ancestral altar. Here, you may find that a spirit is not compatible with your current situation, or doesn’t want to work with you ever! Should the omens be good, however, and you may begin establishing a connection to that spirit Research and talking to other devotees can give you great insight into what a relationship with that Spirit can look like.

My formula for reaching out to these spirits is always different, but I follow basic principles. I always begin with a representation of the spirit, a small offering and a candle. The representation can be anything, from a statue to a printed picture or even just their name on some paper. The offering is in most cases water until the spirit makes other wants known to me, but when a spirit doesn’t take water I offer food or tobacco instead. The candle is something I was taught helps to enhance spirit communication, carrying messages between the worlds. It is helpful to research about whoever you are attempting to communicate with, and if possible you should speak to other practitioners who work with the same Spirit. Often times, this is someone-you-know’s father or grandmother. From here, you should sit with whatever entity you are contacting, allowing yourself to experience a personal relationship with them. I will share individual experiences of what each spirit has been like in practice for me, or people I know, but for beginning this is a good basic way to start out.

I look forward to sharing more about these incredible figures who influence my favorite corner of the world to this day.

Paz y Progreso 🕯️

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Resources for Cuban and Caribbean Folk Magic 🇨🇺

Disclaimer: Cubans are not a monolith so when we say ‘Cuban Folk Magic’ its like saying ‘American Folk Magic’ in the sense that it is a BROAD term that includes multiple different cultural threads and traditions. Start by researching your ancestors and where they were from as a jumping off point.

Also, many of these resources are not Cuban themselves, but they either share the same practices or are academic or general sources. I have made it clear when a source isn’t Cuban. For this reason, I have expanded it to be the Cuban AND Caribbean Folk Magic List.

The List

General:

Irka Mateo - Taino - Insta 🇩🇴

Religion.Ancestral.Taino - Insta 🇵🇷

Sancista Brujo Luis - Espiritismo/Taino-Youtube | Blog 🇵🇷

OkaniLuna - Brujería/Taino - Youtube🇩🇴

Juliet Diaz - Brujería/Taino/Author - Instagram 🇨🇺

Sancista 7 Espadas - Espiritismo - Insta 🇵🇷

Odofemi - Regla de Ocha - Tumblr 🇺🇸

Eve the Medium - ATR/Espiritismo - Youtube 🇩🇴

Yeyeo Botanica - ATR/Espiritismo- youtube 🇺🇸

Botanica Candles & More - Great Podcast!! - youtube 🇨🇺 🇺🇸

Connecting w/ Guides and Goals by Adunola - youtube 🇺🇸

San Lazaro - Wikipedia - Novena - Yeyeo Botanica

Caridad del Cobre - Wikipedia

Orisha and Palo Herbs Directory- Website

Ewe (Herbs) Photo Guide - Website

Pueblo Originario Taino Section - Website

Books:

Taino Library* - Amazing resource for books of all kinds, many books about Taino, Cuban and Caribbean Spiritualities, Folklores and Songs! Multiple books on Cuban Myths and Folktales! Highly recommend - Website 🇵🇷

Espiritismo by Hector Silva🇩🇴

A Year in White by C Lynn Carr

The Modern Art of Brujería by Lou Florez(VERY BASIC just as a general introduction to what alot of modern Folk Practices look like)

American Brujeria by J. Allen Cross 🇲🇽🇺🇸

El Monte by Lydia Carbera 🇨🇺

Movies:

Cecilia (1982) - Youtube

Las Profecias de Amanda - Youtube

This list will grow as I find more resources that are reliable enough to share. If you have recommendations or would like to be added, please reach out.

Luz y Progreso 🕯️

(I also have included a Research Guide below the Cut!)

Guide to researching based on your ancestry:

If your family has African roots, you can seek Ocha/Lukumi, Palo, Arara, Cuban Vodou and other African Traditional Religions and Practices. Please approach elders within these respective practices to further your connection to them, rather than using books to create a practice for yourself. These are ancient, community based and are lifelong commitments, not just trendy powerful spells for you to get what you want.

If your family has indigenous roots, research Taino spirituality and modern practices , but also know that there were other tribes in the western and centeral parts of Cuba, with their own languages and traditions you can still learn about like the Guanahatabey. You may also consider joining a Yukayeke, but this isn’t required. Reconnecting and decolonizing is a separate and important topic that is not inherently witchcraft or folk magick-y… HOWEVER, researching and informing yourself with these practices can help you to see their influence within modern folk practices.

If your family has Asian roots, research the buddhist cults and folk practices throughout Cuba! Believe it or not, we also have people of Middle Eastern descent in Cuba who brought with them their own Hindu and Arabic Folk Traditions, which can be found throughout Cuba and the Caribbean as a whole.

If your family has Spanish roots, research some open practices like Espiritismo and Folk Catholicism! Look into the Patron Saints of Cuba, La Virgen de La Caridad del Cobre and San Lazaro. These also tie in to many of the other cultures who were forced to adopt certain elements to ensure survival of their traditions! You can also look into Brujería. Much like modern witchcraft, modern brujería has been commodified to hell and back, but there is still some great knowledge and power to be found there.

The fact of the matter is, that most of us can fit ourselves into two or more of these categories, and this crossover is where Folk Magic is often born. Its also important to note, in alot of these traditions you shouldn’t learn or share certain things at certain times, so some sources who share too much about Ocha and other ATRs should be avoided. Also, I can’t stress how important it is to talk to your family! Ask them about folklore or legends and stories! Also research history and folkore of the specific areas in Cuba your family is from. A-lot of folk magic is incorporated into stories.

Bendiciones, good luck on your Journey!🦎🐊

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Powerful spell ingredients that are specifically NOT herbs, oils or crystals

Because magick works best when there are actual real memories and strong emotions tied to the items.

to attract love in life/increase your or someone else’s happiness:

- your (their) most favourite candy - a colorful ribbon from a gift wrapping - some kid’s love confession letter you found in a library book

to speed up things:

- burnt matches - a watch stem - bus/train tickets - a few torn off sheets from a daily/weekly calendar

to slow down things:

- a snail shell - a queue ticket - a pull-tab from canned food - a few drops of formalin - dried fruits

to protect/threaten:

- tin soldiers - old bullets - cat nails (naturally shed, obviously. inspect your cat’s scratch post) - dead wasps - insect cocoons - glass bottle caps (you know, these sharp metal ones)

to banish:

- a few drops of sanitizer - absorbent coal - a rejection letter - a one-way ticket (away from your location)

to curse:

- a traffic/parking ticket - bones from cooked fish that you almost choked on - your own tears, brought by sincere rage/misery - flowers from a thrown-away bouquet - the most obnoxious ad/spam mail you’ve ever received - a test paper, marked F and mercilessly corrected by a sadistic teacher Use your senses, your emotions, your own memories and your imagination: what does this item make you feel, what did it possibly make its owner feel? You can add to the list whatever feels right to you. Remember that emotions and memories connected to the item are always a powerful magick fuel, especially in spellwork.Note: some of these things are obviously region-specific. For example, living in a place that once was the war epicentre, it’s a common thing for me to stumble across old rusty bullets while taking a walk in a suburban forest. It may be different for you, but that only means you have certain things which are only unique to your place.

[boarsteeth-brujo]

🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊

https://instagram.com/queduong

[boarsteeth-brujo]

[boarsteeth-brujo]

I had a wander in my garden today.

Where I live, in zone 9b, hard freezes are supposed to be extremely uncommon. The perennials here are not adapted for them, and many of the trees people grow are not either. Now we’ve had three in the last four years, 2021, 2022, and this year 2024. Many trees that were still recovering from 2021 are still struggling and this year’s hard freeze may be the end of them.

It’s a challenge for people attempting to grow fruit trees. Many trees that have been grown here for generations can’t take these freezes, but one cannot simply try a more frost-adapted variety because we’ve also had some of the hottest and most unrelenting summers on record in these same four years.

It hurts to see my native and introduced neighbors struggle. I feel like we are sharing this struggle in that we are all at the mercy of forces that are destabilizing the earth and the climate and we have very little power to save ourselves.

But that’s not quite true, because I have a voice that those forces can hear, and they do not. So, just as they are compelled to keep striving for survival, I am compelled to keep speaking and telling the story of how we are all being murdered for money.

[boarsteeth-brujo]

By Jazz

Everlasting Moon Coven is an 18+ discord server originally dedicated to hosting a free 900+ PDF library, and has expanded to a hosting space for learning, expanding, and self exploration with other like minded peers.

We are an open door for any solo path or patheon devotee no matter how long you've been studying, or even non-practioners respectfully curious about the many crafts. Our server hosts book clubs, resource requests for books that have not been added, and full access to our ever expanding PDF library (English and Spanish sections). Along with opt-able topic channels for all walks of magic and sorcery, we host a space to discuss and grow in your chosen path. Voice calls hosted often and monthly movie nights, we look forward to filling our space!

Join Server Here🔗

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Some animistic bone-reading tips

I've been practicing bone-reading for about five years now, and through that I've picked up on a few things that I don't regularly see people talking about, so I decided to put together a list that I would have personally found helpful at the beginning of my divination practice. Please be advised that I come at bone-reading from a very animistic perspective, so if that's not a viewpoint that you believe in, most of these tips probably won't be helpful to you.

The method of bone-reading I use is to ask a specific question and toss the bones to read. This is a common method, but there are also alternate practices, such as tossing bones in the fire and reading them based on the burns and heat cracking.

Choose your bones carefully. Pick ones that want to be worked with, and ones that you're personally able to resonate with. Bones that don't want to be read can't be used effectively from my experience.

Feed your bones. This is the practice of giving your bones offerings to maintain their willingness to work with you and to build your relationship with them. I find divinatory herbs and blood to be a great offering, though blood should not be used without experience and caution. Food the animal would have eaten while alive can also be effective (for example, if your set is made primarily of fox bones, a small offering of meat might be appreciated).

Listen to your gut. Bone-reading is an incredibly instinctual and personalized form of divination. Don't try too hard to logically assign meanings to your bones - from my experience, they will usually let you know. If you can tell a bone would like to be used for a reading but can't tell what the bone might mean, add it to your set. It will let you know once you start doing readings with it.

Use a mat. This is partially a mundane recommendation; if you throw your bones straight onto the floor, they're eventually going to break. This also makes it easier to tell when a bone breaking is significant to the reading. A mat can also serve as a center of the reading; the bones in the middle may be more significant, whereas the bones that fall off the mat may be irrelevant to the reading. This isn't a format one has to use, but it can be helpful, especially to beginners.

Just start bone-reading. Obviously you should go into it having done research, and with a cautious and respectful attitude. However, at a certain point, doing research and preparation isn't helpful. Because bone-reading is so personalized and instinctual, there is so much you can only learn once you start. During your first few readings, pay close attention to each bone, where they fall next to each other, and what they may be telling you about their meaning.

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Something I learned today

I dumped spicy flakes out on the ground for biodegradable purposes and later mom is telling me my Abuela was freaking out. Saying someone wanted to cast “mal Brujeria” on her because she found the red pepper flakes. Then mom laughed and poked fun at me when finding out it was just me and Abuela calmed down. Apparently in Peru, dumping pepper on someone’s door or other is casting a misfortune spell. Agshdjfkfkg

Well the more you learn.

[boarsteeth-brujo]

🌊 Playa Pesquero, Holguin, Cuba 🌊

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Guardian wards for the home. Do you have one? I put one up when I first began practicing a couple of years ago. I did okay keeping up with the maintenance but the figure I was using as my physical representation broke. It has taken over a year to find a replacement that feels right, but I’ve finally found it and the ward is back up. Now, my representation is different, and the offerings I gave last one don’t seem fitting. So my next step is figuring that all out. I feel so much better with the ward in place!

I adapted this ward from The Traveling Witch to create mine:

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Update: I have over 600 free books and resources uploaded to my google drive. I also have a 18+ discord for Everlasting Moon Coven!

Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10mkrjBylnr59A6lWrJQ7R7SNgbZTu8d4

Discord: https://discord.gg/ZaBCHSbMZ3

[boarsteeth-brujo]

[boarsteeth-brujo]

Origins of Healing Justice - Conjuring the Roots of Healing Justice

The legacies of settler colonial dispossession from land, slavery, and colonization led assimilation makes it difficult to follow our lineages and learn about our inherited cultural ceremonies, knowledge, and resistance practices. Healing justice is conjured into our world through reconnection with our individual lineages to inform how our individual practices can help us heal or transmute intergenerational trauma into fuel to keep our movements strong and resilient. Healing intergenerational trauma and the unique traumas of our intersections of oppression require cultural techniques to fulfill the soul memory of our traditions that were passed down for generations. A quote from Mya Hunter of SpiritHouse NC states, “The theory of change for us is around Culture, Practice, and Ritual, and we call it ‘CPR’. And so everything has to be based in your personal culture,” pg 130. Part of my healing and reconnection journey has been reading The Curanderx Toolkit: Reclaiming Ancestral Latinx Plant Medicine and Rituals for Healing by Atava Garcia Swiecicki and other books about Curanderismo to inform my individual practice. I have been combining the knowledge I was able to pick up from my great grandmother who was a Curandera before dementia took over and she passed away, and the things I’ve learned in alignment with my core through exploration of related books. The Curanderx Toolkit is a very queer-inclusive and gentle approach to our traditions that acknowledges the roots of our practices that came from Indigenous, African, and Catholic traditions.