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magickal properties of altar decor materials

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anyone still alive?

i feel like, after my absence on tumbr and triumphant half return, that maybe the witchcraft side was just a phase on here, and most have jumped ship to tiktok. if youre still here. can you pop a like on this? il follow any active witchcraft blog. my dash is kinda dead for my main account in general, and id love to fill it with more living blogs and hopefully more content for this one.

preferably general witchcraft, obscure material associations, spirit work. animism, norse paganism, and stories. but all are welcome

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can i show you guys the funniest friggin. palm tree

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Can I share any of your posts to pinterest? That's where I have my digital bos. Hope you're doing well!! Those posts are hella informative so, thank u :) 🧡

im fine with that! i would appreciate a little credit on it if possible but this blog is anonymous anyway so whatever you decide to do (send em to us too lol)

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When I don't ask my runes any specific question they tell me things like, "The breath of God and the primordial water nourish the seed of human creation." When I do the same with my tarot cards they say shit like, "Wash the dishes, whore. One day your parents will die."

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a witch’s palm.

palmistry placements that may indicate certain natural traits or abilities related to witchcraft.

the mystic cross. “x” shaped cross located between the head and heart lines. indicates that spirituality, witch’s intuition, and acknowledgement of power or ability were understood at a very young age.

the psychic cross. “x” shaped cross located beneath:

the index finger: blessings from jupiter/zeus. wisdom, and a great capacity for knowledge. often destined to teach or impart. 

the middle finger: blessings from saturn/cronus. intuition, and a great capacity for visceral power. often has natural ability working in dreams and meditations.

the ring finger: blessings from sun/apollo. attraction, and a great ability to naturally draw in your needs and desires. often powerful with enchantments. 

the little finger: blessings from mercury/hermes. instinct, and a great natural ability for practice. often adopts new methods with ease and natural talent.

the psychic triangle. triangular shape located beneath the ring finger. indicates that in this life, or another, you have chosen to suppress your abilities. they are likely powerful, but potentially caused harm- intentionally, or not. (this does not mean they are unreachable, it more likely encourages you to work very consciously.)

the healer’s mark. a series of parallel lines located beneath the little finger. indicates powerful healing abilities; the more lines, the greater the gift. 

the traveller’s mark. a series of parallel lines located beneath the mount of the moon. indicates that there is an innate talent and drive in travelling both the physical and the astral planes. a natural ability for astral projection; the more lines, the greater the gift.

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Some Stuff My Mom Taught Me

My mom was a Jewish woman raised in West Virginia, and while I don’t think she’s ever been a practitioner she definitely has that Way about her. She taught me a few things I’d call charms and superstitions now, and I figured I’d pass them on. (I don’t know which parts come from where/what’s just her being her, but they’ve all become valuable to me and I’m giving y’all permission to adopt them if you’d like~)

Touch metal when driving over train tracks for good luck, or to avoid bad luck.

If you own or care for a black cat, then black cats are no longer a symbol of bad luck, because you’re “on their side.”

Ask for little signs to practice attracting things/manifesting. (Purple feather and pink elephant are popular ones for her.) You can do one a day if you want.

If you have a nightmare/something else that’s haunting you, write/draw it out on a piece of paper and burn it so it can’t come back.

Garlic tea tastes terrible but will cure most minor throat problems if you can stand it (that’s just some good ol’ science.)

If you keep running into the same song then there’s something about it you need to hear

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are my prophetic visions a joke to you

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Spirits #1: Sensing and Recognising

In this post, I will give you:

A forewarning.

Ways to recognise when a spirit is around.

Exercises to help you sense them.

Grounding Methods

Herbs for Psychic Powers/Tea recipes

Gems for Psychic awareness/powers

A Forewarning:

It’s easy to convince yourself that everything is a spirit. I’ve seen a lot of beginners and even more experienced people do so. There’s also the placebo effect. Your friend says they saw a spirit and now you start seeing that thing around you. It could be because you’re giving it energy, but it could very well be a type of placebo effect. So be careful. Not everything is a spirit…

… and not everything isn’t.

Now, here I will be giving out information I have gathered around, however, take it with a pinch of salt and add what you wish to it.

Finally, remember that grounding yourself is also very important. I’ll expand upon that in another post.

Recognise a Spirit:

There are ways to recognise a spirit through all five senses, and for some, even the sixth one.

There are spirits with higher frequencies, “good” spirits, if you will. And some with lower frequencies, “bad” spirits, as some will call them. I am of the mindset that there are no good or bad spirits, just like there are no good or bad people.

Please note: I am not talking about demons, here.

Spirits with higher or lower frequencies will feel or be sensed differently.

Again, here’s a strong disclaimer. Not everything is a spirit/ghost. Especially if you suffer with a mental illness, please be cautious.

Sight:

Shadows: Shadows are an easy way for spirits to manifest themselves. They’re not fully manifested, but you can see them. There’s a difference between shadows and shadow people, you’ll immediately feel the change in energy.

Partial Manifestation: Although rarer, spirits can fully manifest parts of themselves, such as eyes, face, hands. They’re often a whitish hue or even full colour. These don’t last long due to the tremendous energy it takes.

Full Manifestation: A full body manifestation is very rare and doesn’t last long, because for a spirit to fully manifest itself, it takes a lot of energy. Some people can help a spirit stay manifested longer, but I’ve seen it take an awful toll on those people’s health. I don’t suggest you try it.

Peripheral Vision: Seeing people or shadows out of the corner of your eyes.This is the most common way to see a spirit.

Air Distortions: Distortions in the air where there’s no reason to have any. Can be a sign of a spirit either trying to manifest itself or simply there.

Orbs: Orbs are small balls of light that are usually captured when taking a picture with a flash. Though a lot of them is just the flash catching dust or pollen, there are also “ghost orbs”, or spirit energy. There are even orbs that you can zoom in on and see faces/shapes.Orbs have also been spotted just floating around.

Light Distortion: Sometimes, when a spirit is of a lower frequency, the light in the room seems to be drained, lights can spontaneously go off, candle flames dwindle without a cause and so on. But when a spirit is of a higher frequency, lights seem to shine brighter and candle flames can burn high.

Hearing:

Hearing is the most delicate one since I have, in the past, suffered from insomnia induced psychosis for several months, and know what it is like to hear voices. Please don’t assume that the voices you hear are spirits. And even if they are, don’t let them tell you to do bad things. They have no power over you unless you give them power, whether they be real or not.

Tinnitus: So this one is rather nebulous, but a few of my psychic friends/acquaintances claim that often, when they hear a sharp ringing in their ears, it’s a spirit attempting to communicate, but either they aren’t ready to hear what they have to say, or the spirit isn’t capable to getting their message across the veil.

Zaps, Bangs and odd little sounds: Sometimes, a spirit can try and get your attention through odd little noises only you hear, and seemingly come from nowhere.

Footsteps: Footsteps in a room when nobody’s home, or on the walls or ceiling. Your house is making more noise than usual without any causing.

Tapping: Little knocks at your door or on your wall through which you can even communicate. Sometimes doors slam without wind.<

Buzzing: Your ears may buzz loudly when spirits are around.

Whispers: Hearing whispers when there is no reason to.

Voices: Hearing voices around you when there is no one. This is a delicate subject matter. Don’t trust the voices without being 1000% sure. Don’t trust the voices if you are currently in a bad mental place (unless it’s trying to cheer you up and help you, in that case, even if it’s a hallucination, at least it’s pretty positive) and don’t trust the voices if they’re telling you to do something bad. Or something that could lead to something bad. However, it is a way for spirits to communicate.

Taste:

Odd Tastes: This is an odd one and I only know two people other than me that have that reaction to spirits, but it’s basically when certain spirits give you tastes in your mouth, such as blood, dirt, sugar, spices and more.

Smell:

Good Smells: A spirit can manifest itself with good smells. Smells that remind you of a deceased loved one or something comforting.

Bad Smells: Just as similarly, some spirits come around with bad smells like rotting flesh or blood.

Other: Sometimes, a smell that has no reason to be there just appears. Like the smell of roast beef in the middle of the night, wafting from your kitchen.

Touch:

A gush of Warm/cool air: You randomly feel a breeze when there shouldn’t be one.

A stroke: You feel as though someone is touching you, stroking you, often in a loving way, or sometimes, in a more uncomfortable way. It gives you goosebumps or shivers.

A Blow: A full on blow to your body. This is rare and more often happens in dream/while you sleep, while real life physical consequences.

Marks: Odd marks on your body. For example, I had a hand shaped mark on my inner thigh, in a way my hands couldn’t have done it, it was outlined with a white line, but was not a scratch. Don’t assume every bump/scratch is a spirit.

Hands: You feel someone touching you. Not really like a stroke, just a hand on your shoulder, or around your throat, or on your cheek. Sometimes a hand holding yourself.

Change in Air pressure: The air around you feels lighter, or heavier, depending on the vibrations.

Pressure on Chest: a very common one I’ve heard is the feeling someone or something sitting on your chest, most of the time, in a very oppressive way.

Electric Shocks: Some people, like myself, feel electric shocks down our spines when close to spirits.

Skin: Your skin crawls, or goosebumps suddenly erupt for no reason, you feel dirty.

ESP:

Extra sensory perception, possibly the most common way to feel a spirit.

Anxiety: Unexplained anxiety, stress, fear, panic attacks, depression and such.

Joy: Euphoria, happiness, confidence, comfort, compassion, good emotions that come out of nowhere.

Empathy: Suddenly feeling emotions that aren’t yours when you, yourself aren’t an empath.

Paranoia: Sudden feelings of being watched, being in danger/vulnerable, feeling you’re not alone.

Intuition: Sudden increase in intuition, like someone is telling you something.

Dread: Your stomach drops,a feeling of dread, tight throat, unexplained sadness.

Dizziness: Dizziness, nausea, motion sickness, you just feel queasy and wrong.

Become more Sensitive:

I don’t know if someone who isn’t naturally sensitive to spirits can become it, though they probably can, I wouldn’t know the methods. So here, I’m going to list ways of increasing already existing sensitivity.

Always Start by Grounding: Grounding is incredibly important. Everyone has their method. Mine is to walk barefoot in the earth or to just stand up and feel my feet. You can meditate, use crystals and so on. I’ll list more grounding methods later.

Meditate: Meditation is an effective way of becoming more receptive to subtle things around you. Everyone has their techniques, but I like doing Anapana before expanding into consciousness projection.

Just get yourself into a spiritual state: May it be through music, walking in the woods, cooking, anything that gets you spiritual, it’ll increase your sensitivity.

Herbal Infusion: Make a herbal tea that favours psychic powers. I’ll give recipes later.

Open your Third Eye: Everyone has their method, but the third eye is a very effective way of doing so.

Work with Crystals: I’ll give a list of crystals later.

Get Spirit’s Attention: Again, many methods that I will list later, but you can find your own.

Channel: Play a good game of Ouija, or do some automatic writing, maybe use your pendulum or any methods of channeling you use. It can get you going.

There are many other methods. Find your own!

Grounding:

Walk: Take a long walk in nature, barefooted preferably, and just feel the earth beneath your feet.

Trees: Hug trees, meditate under trees, just be around trees, imagine yourself rooting yourself in the earth. Can work with house plants, just dig your hands into the earth and feeling your energy going deep.

Dance: Dance around, stomp your feet, rock the world, just get in touch with your physical body.

Meditate: Meditate. Just concentrate in your breath, your body. Then, you can try and expand your consciousness, but instead of reach up, go down, into the earth.

Massage: Massage yourself or get someone to massage you. Nothing airy. A nice, deep massage. Rub your limbs and pat yourself down. You’re here, in your body.

Exercise: Do physical exercise. Yoga in particular (I don’t recommend Kundalini or westernised Yoga Pilates/etc, but actual Indian yoga. Something grounding like standing poses, especially Tadasana/Mountain Pose.) and Qi Gong

Animals: Spend time stroking your dog, cat, horse, earth animal (not birds, or aquatic animals)

Earth Spirit: Ask earth spirits, such as trolls, gnomes and others to help you be grounded.

Herbs:

Herbs for Psychic Awareness:

NOT ALL OF THESE ARE SAFE TO INGEST!!!!!

Taken from Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. Feel free to do your own research.

Astral Protection: Mugwort, Poplar, Dittany of Crete

Mental Powers (Strengthen): Caraway, Celery, Eyebright, Grape, Horehound, Lily of the Valley, Mace, Mustard, Periwinkle, Rosemary, Rue, Spearmint

 Psychic Powers: Acacia, Althea, Bay, Bistort, Bladderwrack, Borage, Buchu, Celery, Cinnamon, Eyebright, Flax, Grass, Honeysuckle, Lemongrass, Mace, Marigold, Mastic, Mugwort, Peppermint, Rose, Rowan, Saffron, Star Anise, Thyme, Uva Ursa, Yarrow, Wormwood, Yerba Santa

Spirituality: African Violet, Aloes Wood, Gum Arabic, Cinnamon, Frankincense, Myrrh, Sandalwood

Tea Recipes:

Meditation: 6 tsp English breakfast tea, 2 tsp Chamomile, 1 tsp Rose hips, 1 tsp Elder flower

Psychic 1: 6 tsp Rose petal, 4 tsp Thyme, 4 tsp Yarrow, 2 tsp Cinnamon, 2 tsp Clove

Psychic 2: 1 tsp mugwort, 1 tsp Lemon Balm, 1 tsp peppermint, 1 tsp yarrow, ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground clove,

There are other recipes, or make your own!

Crystals:

I am not listing them all since there are a lot. Feel free to do your own research.

Increase Psychic Awareness:

Azurite: It vibrates at the level of the third eye chakra, for clairvoyance, crown chakra, for heightened spiritual connections and throat chakra for psychic communication.

Angelite: Used to communicate with Angels and higher frequency. It helps open you up to new information and spiritual senses.

Amethyst: Opens higher chakras, helps strengthen psychic abilities, protects and good for meditation and dreams.

Bloodstone: This one is really known to strengthening psychic abilities of all kinds, especially clairvoyance. It also protects from lower frequencies.

Carnelian: This one helps heighten/develop intuition, clairvoyant and clairaudient gifts. Used to transfer living to the spirit realm and vice versa.

Fluorite: Offers psychic protection, from negative energies and psychic vampires. Helps strengthen intuition, psychic abilities, connection to spirits and spirit guides.

Herkimer Diamond: Especially known for having magical properties, the Herkimer Diamond helps with telepathy, connections to spirit guides, past life and enhancing psychic abilities.

Kyanite: Great stone to use in meditation, to aid lucid dreaming, astral projection, connecting to spirit guides and Intuition. (Do use with caution since it’s really strong)

Sapphire: Helps open communication lines with the spirit world, helps give clarity, open the third eye and enhance psychic visions. Also aids with out of body, telepathy, precognition and intuition.

Turquoise: Enhances clairvoyant and clairaudient abilities, strengthen psychic powers and balance chakras.

Quartz: Quartz is the most powerful stone for psychic abilities, and the most accessible. It enhances psychic vision, understanding messages from the spirit world, opening communication with it and balancing chakras.

Psychic Protection:

Labradorite: Good for protection against negative energies and very powerful psychic protection.

Tiger’s Eye: Also amazing to keep you safe from negativity, it helps mostly with more human bad energies. Still very good.

Black Tourmaline: Black tourmaline helps ground you and keeps you incredibly safe from negativity. Like a pillar. My personal choice.

Emerald: Emerald is incredibly powerful psychic tool and keeps you safe from negative energies.

Most of the crystals mentioned above are really good for protection too.

Most black stones are good for grounding/protection/Absorption of negative energies, such as: Apache tears, Black tourmaline, obsidians and more.

Finally, a disclaimer. I don’t know everything. I may have made some mistakes. Please take care of yourself when working with the subtle and please don’t force yourself into doing something that frightens you or that you don’t feel ready to do. If you are mentally unstable, first look into healing yourself before going into spirit communication, since spirits can trick you, just like humans.

Please take care, but don’t be afraid either since fear is food for spirits with lower vibrations.

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casual enchantments for the everyday witch

+ enchant your lip balm or lipstick for a boost of confidence when speaking

+ enchant a middle finger ring to jinx anyone who you flip off with bad luck 

+ enchant your earrings or ear studs for better hearing or to hear when people are talking shit about you

+ enchant your bus or train card so that you’ll never miss a bus or train again

+ enchant eyeliner to make your eyes more striking or to instil fears in the hearts of anyone who you glare at

+ enchant a wristwatch to remind you to look at it at vital times if you’re going to be late

+ enchant shoes to motivate your feet to pick up the pace 

+ enchant a pen to attract compliments about your handwriting or keep your handwriting from devolving into chicken scratch

+ enchant earphones or headphones to repel people who want to bother you when you’re listening to your music

+ enchant coin purses or wallets to keep you from dropping cards or losing your money

+ enchant a box of sweets or candy or mints for a boost of happiness

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Spirit House Rules Ritual

(Image Originally Illustrated and Posted by @debbie-sketch​) 

This ritual was inspired by @themanicnami​‘s original post on Spirit House Rules, which I highly encourage you to check out (here) before reading or performing this ritual! She gives a lot of great information on house spirits, spirit communication, how to write your own spirit house rules, her personal rules and the method she uses for communicating them. I loved her idea and felt it more appropriate to put my own spin on it before trying it out myself - something we should all do in our craft! This is simply another method; neither is right or wrong! 

Purpose

To get comfortable and set clear boundaries for the spirits that reside alongside you in your home; to establish a balanced relationship based on clear communications and consent for a more harmonious home and magical workings.

Materials

Pen

Paper

Purple Pillar Candle

Herbal Offering (I use Lemonbalm, Lavender, Frankincense)

Selenite or Clear Quartz (Optional)

*Tip: It would do you well to keep your own copy of these rules for reference and to make additions or changes later.

1. Write a list of rules for your specific house spirits to abide by. Be thorough and direct. Include consequences. (Again, I’ll reference @themanicnami​‘s original how to guide here.)

2. Leave your list under a selenite or clear quartz crystal overnight. If you do not have/want to use selenite or clear quartz, use your own method of clearing energy blocks with the use of a communication tool - anointing with moon water or lemon essential oil or cleansing with any air correspondence incense smoke should also work.

3. The next morning, fully cleanse your space.

4. Post your list above your front door for a full 24 hours. Light your purple pillar candle for the full duration. Leave an herbal offering across the threshold of the front door as an act of goodwill. 

5. The third morning, burn the list with the flame of your purple candle and snuff it out. Scatter the ashes in front of the house. Thank the spirits for their cooperation.

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Updated Resource Masterpost

Astral Projection

Are you over-complicating astral travel?

Beginner Witchcraft

9 ingredients every aspiring witch needs

A witch’s library

Grimoire organization ideas

Cleansing and charging items

Basic herbs

Candle magic

Candle magic omens

Charms

50 simple charms

Correspondences

Magical Metals: The Basics

Incense Uses and meanings

Herb magic: rose colors and magic

Magical correspondences of food

Yankee candle theoi associations

Cosmic Witchcraft

Cosmic Witchcraft 101: Tips for beginners

Cosmic witch tip

Cosmic Witchcraft 101: Lunar magic

Cultural Appropriation

On Smudging

Reminder about the term spirit animal

Cursing

Cursing 101

Deity Related (not Pantheon specific)

Mythological book recommendations

Devotional acts don’t have to be high maintenance

Alternative Altars and devotions

A friendly gentle reminder

Green Witchcraft

Study tips for herbalists

Ways to help save bees

Herbal amulets

Hellenic Polytheism

Veiling and binding

Hair and hair binding in Pre-classical Greece

Miasma

Breif deity prayers

Basic Hellenic supplies

Basic Hellenic offering ritual

Hellenic crafts for kids

Small things about the Theoi

2016 Hellenion Calendar

Kemetic Polytheism

Some Kickass papercrafts

Kemetic holidays

Goddesses and Gods of the Ancient Egyptians

Shrine Basics

Daily Ritual Basics

Saying “Hi” to Netjeru

Kitchen Witchcraft

Moon cakes

Using soda in witchcraft

Offerings and Devotion for Specific Deities [Mostly Hellenic ATM]

Offerings for Haides

Devotional acts for Hermes

Offerings/Devotional acts for Aphrodite

Persephone Offerings

Hymn for Helios

More devotional act for Hermes

Other Masterposts

A Spirit-workers holy grail

DIY Witchery masterpost

A huge masterpot !!Great for beginners!!

Cosmic witch masterpost

Protecting and shielding masterpost

Astral travel/projection masterpost

A masterpost for space witches

Resources for Hellenismos

Pie’s Hellenic Polytheism Resource page

Potions

“Give Me Sunshine” Potion for happiness

Secret witches

How to hide an altar (Also: Altoid tin travel kits)

Discrete witch tip: charge your toothbrush

Herbal and floral waters (Also good as offerings to deities/lots of other things)

Sigil Magic

3 Sigils by witchofthunder

Homophobes cannot see me

Spells

Banish the bullshitter spell

Jar spell to attract love

Herbal sleep and dream pillows

Tarot cards

Twelve Olympians spread

Is an entity contacting me spread

I’m fucking perfect spread

Deity identification spread

Am I worth much spread

Witch Tips

Witch Tip: Disabled tip

Making your room magical

Witchling tips

Witch tip (if you crochet)

A witchy tip (if you’re having guests)

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What is your favorite holiday?

*These are Northern Hemisphere dates

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‘We erect altars at places where great streams burst suddenly from hidden sources; we honour springs of hot water as divine...’

Seneca, ‘Epistulae Morales’

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I take my art practice very seriously y’all

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What is a Hex, really? A History Lesson

Most of the time looking on tumblr you find the answer to the above question being that it is a form of dark magick, with an intensity somewhere between a jinx and a curse. However history tells a different story.

All too often, a hex in magical workings is mistaken for curse. A curse is very specific. It refers to a type of magic that is intended to cause misfortune or harm to another person or situation. The definition of a hex is far broader than this.

The entomology of the word Hex is Germanic in origin, coming from Hexe which was most commonly in use between 1820-1830 and means Witch. To hex, at its most basic, is to perform witchcraft with the intent to bewitch a person or situation, and can be for either good or ill.

One of the earliest uses of the word hex was in relation to Dutch Hex Signs, which could be compared to a form of painted prayer. The Hex sign was often painted onto barns, and used for the purpose of warding the building and its occupants against black witchcraft and evil spirits.

It is clear then that in relation to cursing, with which it is so often compared, Hex is a much broader umbrella term regarding manipulation magic, under which the sub category of cursing may fall if it involves manipulation of a person rather than the usual sending of negative energies to influence a person’s life. But generally a curse is not a type of hex at all.

These negative connotations concerning the word hex would have come about due to the association of the Christian church with witchcraft and the labelling of all magic as evil and witches being aligned with the devil. If a Hexe referred to magic performed by a witch, then the natural progression of that time would have been to label all hexes as evil curses, and so the erroneous link between hexes and curses began.

However to solely concentrate on the mistaken link between curses and hexes would be to do the term a disservice. The oldest use of the word Hexe, comes from 1720 in relation to the word Haegse which referred to a Wise Woman, and in turn originated from the word Hygia which directly translates to the modern equivalent of Wisdom.

So we see this very interesting development of the word we see today which had its origin in the practice of wisdom and nothing to do with manipulation at all. The Haegse (which in a fascinating turn also developed into the English word Hag and also has modern negative connotations) was used for women who were Soothsayers and in both Germanic and Celtic traditions were considered the most revered women in society.

With the later development of Hexe, we see the emergence of the Hexenmeister which translates into Hex Worker or Hex Master. This was a solely healing role.

The Hexenmeister was a practitioner who utilised hands free healing, using earth wisdom to heal physical ailments and those of a more spiritual nature. This was the role of the traditional folk healer, a benevolent force in any Germanic village.

Seeing this rich history of the term Hexe only reinforces the subsequent tragedy of the demonization of people who were connected with the wisdom of the earth and the healing that came from such knowledge.

Hag, Crone, Witch, Hex and many other words carry heavy negative associations because of the spread of fear and ignorance through the Burning Times. As modern practitioners of witchcraft an onus is placed on us to embrace our robust history and shine new light on the misconceptions. Our history is beautiful and the more we learn, the more we can shed light on our variegated past.