elminx - Tumblr blog

[elminx]

I am so interested in this.

My answer is "no" but that's because I don't think that I use personal correspondences. Not exactly. I use discovered correspondences, all the damn time, but they are there. Naturally in the object. Anybody could use them. Even if I didn't find them in a book.

So, IMO, they aren't actually personal and therefore would, inherently, work on another person.

Has anybody on here tried an experiment where they've used a completely personal to them (unknown otherwise) correspondence on ANOTHER PERSON with success?

[elminx]

My May transit report is up on my KoFi site as early access to my supporters.

As always, it will be available here on May 1st.

[elminx]

Oh my...these ramps are SO GOOD!

My partner put them on a pizza last night which was amazing and I just added some to my veggie scramble for breakfast which was also so, so good. Best allium of them all.

(I wonder if that's because I only get to eat it in the spring, but I digress)

What I've Been Up To (Spring Magic)

I've got a lot on my plate right now: a bunch of work, my garden is finally ready for its spring clean up, and my partner and I are getting ready for our annual pilgrimage to the ocean and a city-wide tag sale that's going to happen immediately after we return home. The end result is that I'm pretty absent on here at the moment and this is likely to continue through at least mid-May.

I thought that I'd give you a sneak peek into what I've been up to (magically) - at least a couple of these things I'd like to get a chance to actually write about, but we'll see.

Egg Shell Candle Molds

Since my friend Nan gave me two goose eggs to try out, Gray and I took it as an opportunity to try out making egg-shaped candles for springtime. These candles came out super well - I haven't finished decorating mine yet (I want to decorate it with dried flowers for a small May Day ritual) but here's Gray's finished candle, shared with their permission.

A Long Form Lemonade Recipe

I alluded earlier to a sugar afternoon in my kitchen that immediately sweetened my week and this is it. I love kitchen magic and eating my spellwork in general, but especially for cleansing and clearing-type spells. The problem with the standard lemonade recipes is that they are immediate and one-and-done which doesn't suit my style of kitchen witchcraft very well. This one is something else - more on that as soon as I have time to write it up. It's also WAY better than rego lemonade, so worth the extra effort.

Ramps

We're just entering the flush of spring wild harvesting season and ramps are a hot ticket item. I LOVE alliums, they are a mainstay of my kitchen magic for their properties of banishment and protection. These were safely harvested, of course.

[elminx]

Has anybody on here tried an experiment where they've used a completely personal to them (unknown otherwise) correspondence on ANOTHER PERSON with success?

[elminx]

A kitchen witch extravaganza is the best kind of extravaganza. Thanks for supporting me!

<3 Minx

[elminx]

What I've Been Up To (Spring Magic)

I've got a lot on my plate right now: a bunch of work, my garden is finally ready for its spring clean up, and my partner and I are getting ready for our annual pilgrimage to the ocean and a city-wide tag sale that's going to happen immediately after we return home. The end result is that I'm pretty absent on here at the moment and this is likely to continue through at least mid-May.

I thought that I'd give you a sneak peek into what I've been up to (magically) - at least a couple of these things I'd like to get a chance to actually write about, but we'll see.

Egg Shell Candle Molds

Since my friend Nan gave me two goose eggs to try out, Gray and I took it as an opportunity to try out making egg-shaped candles for springtime. These candles came out super well - I haven't finished decorating mine yet (I want to decorate it with dried flowers for a small May Day ritual) but here's Gray's finished candle, shared with their permission.

A Long Form Lemonade Recipe

I alluded earlier to a sugar afternoon in my kitchen that immediately sweetened my week and this is it. I love kitchen magic and eating my spellwork in general, but especially for cleansing and clearing-type spells. The problem with the standard lemonade recipes is that they are immediate and one-and-done which doesn't suit my style of kitchen witchcraft very well. This one is something else - more on that as soon as I have time to write it up. It's also WAY better than rego lemonade, so worth the extra effort.

Ramps

We're just entering the flush of spring wild harvesting season and ramps are a hot ticket item. I LOVE alliums, they are a mainstay of my kitchen magic for their properties of banishment and protection. These were safely harvested, of course.

[elminx]

BTW, I've spent all day trying to decide if I use personal correspondences and what that means to me. I'm wondering if other people mean something different than I do when they say it.

I mean this in an entirely different way than "has a personal relationship with a correspondence" which is the basis of my entire practice.

I think it mostly means "use this thing in a unique way that is unlikely to be discovered by somebody else". And from that perspective, the way that I use personal correspondences is as taglocks.

Has anybody on here tried an experiment where they've used a completely personal to them (unknown otherwise) correspondence on ANOTHER PERSON with success?

[elminx]

^^^

This is great, send over your questions about ghosts if you've got 'em!

I'm starting my notes for the talking to ghosts post this afternoon (outlining, deciding what I want to include)! I had the idea of including a handful of like. Q&A things at the end? This specific post is mostly just an introduction to ghosts as I've come to understand them, but it'd be cool to include answers to questions that you all might have.

Soooooo if you've got ghost-related questions, drop them in the replies, reblogs, or in my inbox! Anons welcome. Some I may answer right away, some might be answered in the post, and some may be stored for future posts. (I have a Whole Post just about hauntings on my radar.)

(Ideally, I'm looking for questions you haven't found answers to elsewhere or that you want my particular take on. (Remembering also that ghost work is spirit work is a lot of UPG.)

[elminx]

I mean casting a spell with a "personal" correspondence on a target other than yourself where you have achieved the desired result of your spell casting.

(I hope that's more clear. )

Has anybody on here tried an experiment where they've used a completely personal to them (unknown otherwise) correspondence on ANOTHER PERSON with success?

[elminx]

Yes hello excuse me but *screams into void*

[elminx]

Has anybody on here tried an experiment where they've used a completely personal to them (unknown otherwise) correspondence on ANOTHER PERSON with success?

[elminx]

Wild Crafting: Violet Syrup

I am so excited to say that I made violet syrup for the first time this week!  I love wild crafting and have tons of local wild sweet violets so I couldn’t wait to try out this wonderful experiment.  Plus, its gorgeous and came out amazing!

A word of wild crafting: if you are going to consume any wild plants, please make sure that you know and understand the risks.  Eating plants that have been sprayed with chemicals = eating the chemicals.  Also, be careful of leeching of other chemicals.  For instance, I love in an old mill town and wild flowers grow in many ditches on the sides of the roads.  These are NOT SAFE TO EAT because they likely have absorbed mill chemicals from the soil.   I collected the violets from the yards of two friends who I know care for their lawns without the use of toxicity.

Firstly, you need wild violets.  I collected 4 cups worth.  The original recipe called for 3-3.5 cups.    The first step is to make a violet “tea”.  Boil one cup of water and let the water sit for 5 minutes - this is so that you don’t burn the color out of the violets with boiling water.   Then let the violets sit for 12-24 hours - the longer you let the violets steep, the better the color and flavor.  I wanted to make mine during the sunlight to get good photos, so I let mine steep for about 36 hours.

Once your violets have steeped, you need to strain them out of the water. As you can see, the leftover “tea” was a beautiful deep indigo color.   This is normal - violet syrup is almost always blue at first.  You can make it purple again later in the process…we’ll get to that.

Next, take your cup of violet tea and combine it with 2 cups of sugar on a VERY LOW HEAT to make a complex syrup.  This will take a while - be patient.   Do not increase the heat as this will burn the color out of your syrup and (I at least) think that the color is a wonderful addition to this recipe.   You want to stir this until the water becomes see through again. Your syrup will most likely still be blue though as you can see, the sugar turned mine back to a lighter shade more reminiscent of violet.  

If your violet syrup is too blue, you can add a dash of lemon juice to it to color it purple again.  Be careful here - a little goes a long way - I made the mistake of trying it with a bit and turning it bright pink, not violet at all!

Then, let you violet syrup cool on the counter.  This is so that the sugar doesn’t crash back out of the mixture, undoing all of your hard work.  When cool, store in an air tight container in your fridge - complex syrup can keep for up to 2-3 months.    What should you do with your violet syrup?  It can be used in Spring cocktail recipe, as a drizzle over pancakes or waffles, or in any other culinary way that you see fit!  It is sweet and floral and pairs well with gins as showed below.

If you’d like to learn more about the magical properties of violet, you can check out my post here.   And as always, if you’d like to support my work, you can Buy Me a Ko-fi.

Because I believe in credit where credit is due, I got the idea for this recipe from this video by The Green Witch on Youtube.

[elminx]

This week has felt challenging in a lot of ways but at least I’m still getting things done.

On Monday, I celebrated the Full Moon with my tiny coven for the first time since February 2020. We exchanged some gifts and picked dandelions and violets from Dora’s lawn for this week’s experiments.

Then, on Tuesday, I set my violet and dandelions up to infuse. My intention for the dandelion was to make a healing tonic jelly and my intention for the violets is a Spring Blessings Violet Liquor.

Half the violets went into a three week long violet infusion and the other half into a tea that I later turned into complex syrup.

You can see how different the violets look after just a few minutes in vodka (on the left) and hot water (on the right).

Wednesday involved making my violet syrup and today I made my dandelion jelly.

I could be mad at performative people, or, instead, I could play with flowers. I choose to play with flowers.

[elminx]

I saw this meme going around on twitter and I think it'll be perfect for this account.

List 5 topics you can talk on for an hour without preparing any material.

[elminx]

Witch Tips: the Best Day in May (2024) for Attraction Magic

Astro-tumbleweeds: circle Saturday, May 18th on your calendar because that is our lucky day of the month.

Sun conjunct Jupiter, Venus conjunct Uranus (all four are in a stellium with one another in Taurus), and Mars conjunct the North Node in Aries. The fates are in play so you might as well play the game, too.

All signs point to a great day for luck, money, love, or just getting what you want out of life.

(This goes doubly for you late Taurus types)

Edited to fix my mistake - it's SATURDAY not Sunday.

[elminx]

Hi there, sorry to bother! I have a quick question- on your best time for May post, you mentioned Sunday May 18th, but the 18th is on Saturday. Is it Saturday or Sunday that is the best day?

You are right! (Mercury retrograde strikes again...that's what I am going to claim).

Trust my dates, not my days.

It's on the 18th.

[elminx]

The way that I practice animism is, that spirit is the thing that animates the world. All physical things in the world have some kind of animate force that deserves respect just as much as the animating force inside me does.

Cleansing your spirit takes care of your body. Cleansing your body is caring for your spirit. Stewarding the spaces around you cares for the spirit of that place and the spirits of the things that use that space. When you go there and you can comfortably be in community with the spirits that are there, the blackberry, the rabbit, your friend, you have cared for your own spirit.

Making tea the way your parents made tea honors their spirit. Using the kettle your friend gave you honors the spirit of your friend and the spirit of the well-used kettle.

Caring for that kettle is caring for the spirit of the kettle. The kettle takes care of you because it is well-maintained it works well.

These things are not happening in the spirit world as a mirror to the physical world. They are not two things overlapping. They are one thing.