just-a-borderline-poet

[just-a-borderline-poet]

Hello, witches! Since I’m always harping on about learning your history and checking your sources, I thought I’d help folks get a head start by compiling some source material.

To that end, I’ve started a Dropbox folder with a stash of historical texts on witchcraft, magic, and related topics. Nearly everything I’ve managed to find so far is public domain (thank you Project Gutenberg), with the exception of a very thorough herbal grimoire I found online some years ago and a book of witchcraft from the 1970s that appears to be out of print.

I will be continuing in this vein with future texts that I find. Everything will be public domain or cited to the source that it came from, in PDF format. I will NOT be including PDFs of any book currently in circulation with a copyright linked to a living author or estate. The point of this folder is that everything in it should be free for sharing and open use as research materials.

Below is the initial list of titles. I tried to include as many as I could find, with a focus on some oft-cited classics. I will be adding new texts as I find them.

A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts on Witchcraft and the Second Sight, by David Webster (1820)

A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein (1909)

British Goblins, Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions, by Wirt Sikes (1880)

Curiosities of Superstition, by W. H. Davenport Adams (1882)

Daemonologie, by King James I/VI (1597)

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, Edited and Selected by W. B. Yeats (1888)

Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, by St. John Drelincourt Seymour (1913)

La Sorcière, or The Witch of the Middle Ages, by Jules Michelet (1863)

Lives of the Necromancers, by William Godwin (1834)

Magic and Fetishism, by Alfred C. Haddon (1906)

Magic and Witchcraft, by Anonymous (1852)

Modern Magic, by M. Schele de Vere (1873)

Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, by Richard Folkard (1884)

Practical Psychomancy and Crystal Gazing, by William Walker Atkinson (1908)

The Devil in Britain and America, by John Ashton (1896)

The Discoverie of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot (1594, 1886 reprint)

The Extremely Large Herbal Grimoire (date unknown, internet publication)

The Golden Bough : A Study of Magic and Religion, by Sir James George Frazer (1890)

The Illustrated Key to the Tarot, by L.W. de Laurence (1918)

The Magic of the Horse-shoe, by Robert Means Lawrence (1898)

The Mysteries of All Nations, by James Grant (1880)

The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy, by Charles John Samuel Thompson (1897)

The Superstitions of Witchcraft, by Howard Williams (1865)

The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut by John M. Taylor (1908)

The Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches, by Increase Mather (1693, 1862 reprint)

Witch Stories, by E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton (1861)

Witch, Warlock, And Magician, by W. H. Davenport Adams (1889)

Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland, by John Gregorson Campbell (1902)

Witches’ Potions & Spells, ed. by Kathryn Paulsen (1971)

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that these texts are (with few exceptions) more than a century old, and may contain depictions, references, or language that are outdated and inappropriate. The point of including these documents is to provide access to historical texts for research and reference. Inclusion in the collection does not equal unconditional agreement with or wholesale approval of the contents.

Take everything with a grain of salt and remember to do your due diligence!

Happy Witching!   -Bree

[just-a-borderline-poet]

sorry for having great tits and correct opinions on everything. as if its my fault

[just-a-borderline-poet]

Clarity/Joy Lemonade Syrup Spell

On a whim I decided to make enchanted/magick lemonade, and it turned out a lot better than I expected, so I’m adding it to the digital grimoire here :) 

Ingredients: 

About a cup and a quarter lime or lemon juice (i used lime), for banishing negativity, cleansing stale energy, and generally freshening things up. 

Very generous pinch of rosemary, I’d say about a tablespoon? I recommend fresh/not dried. For protection, clearing negative and stale energy.

two apricot halves. Idk what their ‘known’ magical properties are, I associated them with joy, sunlight, and harmony when making this.

cup and a half of sugar, to sweeten your day and your mood

half cup of water

Small piece of ginger, chopped small, to add energy and vitality, really give a kick of inspiration and energy to your day. 

I added a few butterfly pea flowers at the end while the syrup cooled for their properties of transformation and change to add to the syrups properties of boosting positive energy, but i’m not sure whether this affected the flavor/color at all. 

Just add all of those things into a big pot on the stove, simmer for a while until all the sugar is melted and everything is looking/smelling like it’s infused, then strain into a container. Then this syrup (less syrup texture, it was still about the same consistency as water) can be mixed in small parts with water to make lemonade. A little bit of the syrup goes a hell of a long way, it is very strong, at least the batch I made was. 

:) 

- B

[just-a-borderline-poet]

If you shake me you can actually hear all the gay little thoughts rattling in my brain

[just-a-borderline-poet]

“he’s just some guy” yes but he has excellent tits

[just-a-borderline-poet]

writing with adhd is so weird. I'll be designing a pantheon for hours for my homebrew tabletop rpg game I'm writing, and then sometimes all my creative energy manages to produce are the words "gnome mafia" and then I zone out for the rest of the afternoon.

[just-a-borderline-poet]

“I’ve really been neglecting my practice lately, I haven’t been active in my craft” 

Also me: Sets sigils as my profile pictures, incorporates witchcraft into the plot of my RPG campaign, draws a tarot card to determine NPC personalities, tracks the full moon, etc...

[just-a-borderline-poet]

hey guys is there a crystal that protects u from racists 😹

[just-a-borderline-poet]

im calling myself out on this one

[just-a-borderline-poet]

I was stuck in the past. You built a cage around me of your expectations, and I blindly assumed that was all I could be, all I was supposed to be. I didn’t think I could leave, I didn’t want to, because I wanted you to love me, to care about me and be proud of the things I did. So I stayed in a cage built out of the idea of a child that never existed. 

I’m not in that cage anymore. I’ve seen that I can leave it, and I'm never going back. You can stay and mourn the child that never was, the child you pursued and loved while neglecting the one you had, but I will not be there to hold up the illusion any more. That cage is empty. I am free. You can’t put me back there. I won’t put myself back there. 

I might not know exactly where I am now. But I’ll find out. I’ll trust myself, and I’ll learn. I have stepped out of your cycles, and I will start my own patterns. Healthy patterns. I will grow, I will heal, I’ll be free and I will find the child you hid from me, the child I really am, really was. And when I find them, I’ll treat them the way you never did, the way you should have, and I’ll help them heal from what you did. I will heal. He will heal. We will heal. I am free now, and I won’t stop trying to free him too. We will get better. 

- B. 

[just-a-borderline-poet]

A letter to my mother

TW: mention of low self worth, toxic parental relationship, emotional abuse. 

Dear Mom, 

You don’t know me. I know you think you do, or you want to, but you don’t. You’ve only ever seen a version of me that meets your standards, not who I really am. You see a perfectly trained version, and when I fall out of alignment with that perfect idea, you blame me. You get mad at me for not being what you expect, all the while never letting go of your idea of your child, a child that doesn’t exist and never existed. You don’t know the real me, and because of that, I barely know the real me. You refused to see the real me, so I learned to hide it, from you, from myself, from everyone. I don’t know who I really am because of you. I thought I was worthless because I wasn’t the child you had in your head. You love an illusion. A child that doesn’t exist. You’re proud of a child that doesn’t exist. You project that idea over me, and that’s who you’re proud of. When I mess up and interfere with the illusion, you get angry. I’m my own person. The child you think you haven’t isn’t real. They probably never were. And I’m sorry, I’m sure it hurts to realize that the child you thought you had isn’t real, but that’s not my responsibility to deal with. I don’t have to make myself be someone else to protect you. It’s your responsibility to realize and cope with the fact that you’ve projected a fake person onto me. My responsibility is to heal from the damage that did.  

You were so wrapped up in your idea of me, that I didn’t get the things I needed. You didn’t notice my ADHD, my isolation, my depression. I was struggling, really, really struggling, and you either didn’t notice or didn’t care to find a real solution. I had to wait years, do my own research, and then fight you on it to get the help I needed. I shouldn’t have had to do that. It wasn’t my job to notice and figure out the problem. You were the parent, you should’ve helped. But you just put the illusion of me between us, and covered it all up. 

I don’t know if it’s too late for you to know the real me. That’s something we’ll have to figure out over time, but we can’t even start if you refuse to see past the illusion you set up for yourself. I hope eventually you can drop the illusion, but my hopes aren’t high. Even if you do change, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust you with the real me. I still see you in my nightmares, trying to force me into the shape you want me to be. Hearing you raise your voice, even a little, sends me into fight or flight. Even if you change, that version of you will stick in my nightmares. I want to say i’ll be able to show you who I really am at some point, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust you with it. 

‘Love’, 

the kid behind the illusion, your son, B. 

[just-a-borderline-poet]

i was just violently pulled back to the time i spent a week straight sorting loom bands by color in a kids program at a conference /pos 

me at ages both 8 and 16 sorting rubber bands by color: wow this is the peak of entertainment

[just-a-borderline-poet]

Vent art under the cut. TW: Suicidal ideation, depersonalization, derealization 

[just-a-borderline-poet]

Mods are asleep post forbidden tits

[just-a-borderline-poet]

I wasn’t supposed to be strong

I was supposed to be a kid

I wasn’t supposed to be resilient

I was supposed to be safe 

I wasn’t supposed to be ‘productive’

I was supposed to be healthy

I shouldn’t have had to be strong

I should’ve been a child. 

I was a kid.

I shouldn’t have had to be the adult.

I didn’t want to be strong

I didn’t want to be brave

I didn’t want to be resilient

I wanted to be safe

I wanted to be a kid

[just-a-borderline-poet]

To my childhood ‘friends’:

A letter to the people in my childhood that used me. Heavy TW for everything under the cut: toxic friendships, unhealthy beliefs, strong language, as well as SH and gore drawn in the vent art below the letter. 

..........................................

Dear _______, 

Fuck you. I’m not a toy. I’m a person, just like you, just like everyone. My pain, my triggers, aren’t buttons you can press to get a fun reaction. Fuck you, for using my discomfort as entertainment, for taking my weaknesses and teaching me that the only way I could be worth anything as a friend was if I let everyone take every little piece of me and use it however they wanted. I still haven’t gotten over that idea. You were a kid, but I was a kid too, damn it, and I still knew better than to do that to other people. You don’t get a pass for what you did just because you were young. 

I wish I was never friends with you. I wish you’d been a better friend. I wish I could’ve been a better friend, by standing up to you and not letting you treat me like that. I wish I’d had friends that actually taught me I was more than what I could give or do for them. You were my only options, and I wish I’d had better ones. I didn’t think I was worth better options. I wish I’d known I was. 

I hope you’ve learned by now, not to treat people like that. I don’t want other people getting the same treatment you gave me. I hope I can unlearn what you ingrained in me, and have healthy friendships with people who actually care. I hope I can learn to stand up for myself, without getting hit with guilt because of what I learned from you. 

I wish I could take back everything I lost when I ripped myself apart to make you stay, make you care, but I can’t. I have to rebuild. Find something new to fill what was taken, what I gave away. It’s going to take me a long time, but I swear on everything I still know, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to let you take one more thing away from me by letting what you did stop me from recovering. In spite of you, I’ll get better, be better. I won’t be anyone’s toy, I’ll be my own person again, or maybe just for the first time. And I won’t even think about you. You won’t have sway over my decisions anymore, and your ghost will no longer haunt me. 

Fuck you, and goodbye. 

- B 

[just-a-borderline-poet]

reblog if you are your url