questionablewitch

[questionablewitch]

Yup, Universe is trying to tell me to listen! So, back in October I got engaged. Since then, I haven’t done any wedding planning and have been stressed about it. Since then, I’ve gotten a bunch of random unprompted wedding-themed messages: accidentally encountering a wedding page on the website I work for (we sell BBQ STUFF!) and a very detailed dream of my wedding last night. I gotta start listening.

[questionablewitch]

I’ve been experiencing so many synchronicities in my life lately that keep hinting at the fact that maybe I should start practicing witchcraft.

The latest? (Don’t laugh) On Halloween I spontaneously dressed up as a gender bent Gerard Way (from My Chemical Romance.) Lo and behold, that day they announced their reunion show.

Maybe the universe is saying to just start already.

[questionablewitch]

What would You put in a beginner's witch kit?

It was inevitable that someone would ask me this, right? I’m assuming this is for someone interested in my style of secular witchcraft?

I was gonna break this into two, like a dip-the-toe-in-the-water kit and then a larger kit, but I’ll just got with the whole thing:

A copy of my zine Brainscan #33 DIY Witchery (an exploration of secular witchcraft) this pretty music explains my personal trajectory, philosophy, politics, and punk in my witchcraft.

Natural Witchery by Ellen Dugan

DIY Magic by Anthony Alvarado

Grove Daughter Witchery by Bree NicGarran

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Equal Rites by Terry Prachett (and a list of all the other witch books in the Disc World series)

Modern Tarot (book) by Michelle Tea

a simple Rider Waite Colman Smith tarot deck

a link to this Rune Soup blog post about sigils

a notebook and pen

a hand written correspondence list of items that can be found in your spice cabinet and weeds found around town

Then in a big swing top mason jar I would put all this stuff:

a few smaller jars

A pen

a sharpie marker

fabric scraps

those scissors that are one piece of metal that have a loop on the back

a bunch of embroidery thread in various colors

thread and needle

sticker paper

bit of broken mirror

some rocks from my own collection: amethyst, quartz points, obsidian, smokey quarts, and whatever other stones that seem to want to go on that adventure with my friend

chime candles in white, black, red, blue, green, purple and brown

at least 3 candle holders for chime candles

a bunch of tealights

ink, maybe a simple pen that uses ink, but ink is pretty helpful as it is

oils: the mercury retrograde protection oil I make, black pepper, sage, cinnamon, clove, lemon, dragonsblood, lavender

incense: frankincense & myrrh, clove, and a few blends that I enjoy

a big piece of black cloth

some earthenware dishes

some tweezers

a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of lemonbalm from my yard

and whatever strange stuff makes itself present on the way to give my buddy this bundle of stuff: washers, literal forks found in the road, acorns, leaves, twigs, etc.

I think that is it for the ultimate witchy gift set I would I would give a friend.

Edited to add a $20 gift card to a thrift shop!

[questionablewitch]

Bats illuminated by lightning

[questionablewitch]

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dir. Henry Selick

[questionablewitch]

Is Witchcraft a Placebo?

What is the “placebo effect” -  a beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment

One of the hardest aspects of witchcraft is proving it actually works. When it comes to spell jars, sigils, and other energy type work the only proof we have of its abilities to actually do anything is our own experiences.

Think of it this way:

You create a spell jar to banish negative energy from your home. You’ve been having this feeling in your gut that something just isn’t right. When you come home you feel some sort of bad mojo around you.

So you put together a spell jar. You collect all your ingredients and you perform your spell. Everything went just as planned and you have your jar all finished. You decide to place it on your altar or maybe you choose to bury it in your yard, or place it somewhere hidden like a closet or dresser..

You start to feel a lightness surrounding you (like that heavy bad feeling is gone or at the very least, slowing dissipating). ~ it’s working ~ the spell is actually working…. or is it?

You’ve been told that this will banish the negative energy from your home and you believe it. So did a jar full of herbs, objects and whatever else you used actually banish the negative energy? Or did it work because you believed it would? 

We’ve argued to a point of exhaustion about intent in witchcraft. “All you need is intent, everything else is just extra shit.” You ever wonder why witches tell you this? It’s because they have some awareness that all you need to do is believe it works and it’ll work. 

I’m not one of these witches lol. I’m into science and hard facts. Which is probably why my craft mostly centers around herbalism (and the medicinal properties of herbs) but I do still use crystals, candles and I’m a tarot reader but that doesn’t mean I’m not self-aware. I understand that my craft will be questioned and what kind of witch would I be if I didn’t also question my own craft and how it works. 

Of course I’m not saying magick isn’t real or that witchcraft is just made up bologna. I am a witch afterall lol. What I am saying is that witchcraft and the placebo effect are very similar.

There have been medical studies where they’ve found that more than 30% of those given a placebo reported the same results as those given the actual drug. This begs the question; are the active ingredients (or properties) in the drugs actually doing anything? or is the power of suggestion strong enough to mimic the results of the drug in question?

Thoughts?

[questionablewitch]

DIY Witchery Resources

Because tumblr now only allows 250 links on a page or some nonsense like that, here’s my DIY Witchery Resource page broken down. It’s not all of, but I did as much as I could for now:

Part 1: Info about me, and my blog, my thoughts on building a secular witchcraft practice, Witchling info and some thoughts on how to get started studying witchcraft, Problems with the general New Age and pagan community including cultural appropriation and their “grabby hands” approach to things they perceive as exotic.

Part 2: Magical Mechanics, Skepticism, Misconceptions about Witchcraft, and Secular Witchcraft

Part 3: Posts about different Kinds Of Spells, and also Witchy Tips

Part 4: General Spell List

Part 5: Cleansing, Anti-Negativity, Wards, and Protection Spells

Part 6: Curses, because sometimes curses just level the playing field

Part 7: Magical Brainstorming and more Witchy Tips

Part 8: Energy Works and Sigils

Part 9: Crafts and DIY Witchy Stuff

There was more on the original page but this is all I’m able to get to now. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to add the rest and add more as these are at least 2 years old and there’s been some fun witchy stuff on tumblr in the last few years.

[questionablewitch]

Hey so I'm a massive sceptic, I don't want to be so thought I'd ask you a question. I guess I'm a sceptic because there are no witches that can just click their fingers and light a candle or magic such as in the films. As a witch in the 21st century what do you guys do? What do your spells do? Can you see them? This isn't hate, like I just want to try and understand and possibly believe that's it's real.

This is really curious. I just started writing, this morning, an article for skeptics who want to believe in witchcraft. So let’s start with the first point: Why can’t witches do badass stuff within the films?

Comparing actual witches to television witches is a bit like comparing actual astronauts to Dr. Who. It’s simply not realistic; it’s never been realistic, and that kind of Charmed stuff has always been for fun and for entertainment.

Can I see my spells? Well, sure. I can see my paycheck after I cast a job spell. I can see texts blowing up my phone after I cast a love spell. I can see spirits in visions, which is a bit like a very vivid daydream. I can feel, too. I can feel the energy changing in a room when I cleanse it. I can feel walls being raised when I cast wards. This kind of feeling comes with practice. And yes, I expect independent verification. If I am working with my friend to cleanse her home, I expect we will receive the same feelings in the same places. If we walk in the same room and have different experiences, then that is not correct.

Where is my verification? Well, for me it’s all around. My grandparents can’t find a house; I cast a spell, and the day the candle burns out they find a house. I hex someone, they complain of the worst luck and accidents and headaches and pain. I do a spell to find tools, and I find expensive tools exactly fitting my needs that day at the thrift store. I cast a spell to travel America, and the next week I’m invited on an all expense paid weekend to Vegas, and another woman invites me to travel the country with her; I chose Vegas.

In fact my tract record is so good that in my mind there is no question that when I ask for something, I will get it.

How does this work? Am I blinded to reality with a major case of confirmation bias? Am I delusional? Am I on my own Truman show? Is it all a massive case of coincidence (or, daresay - magic?) The answer is I don’t care. I have a belief system I’m comfortable with that supports me and empowers me. I believe magic is real because it works for me. I don’t snap my fingers and manifest fire - but I can manifest a whole lot else.

Let’s talk about rationality and empiricism.

Rationality is a required element of magic. You cannot safely live an irrational life. Magic is not about setting aside rationality, it is about expanding your belief set to allow for more input. My atheist friend has a very limited and well defined set of circumstances he will accept information from. I accept information from a broad and nebulous set of circumstances. 

Empiricism is one philosophy. It’s really good at explaining a lot of things, but it does not explain everything. So if you’re chilling out and saying, “I am an empiricist and the only evidence in favor of witchcraft I’ll take is a witch manifesting fire with a snap of his fingers,” I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if you, as a rational human, can say “empiricism is one philosophy that does not explain everything, and I am willing to temporarily set aside some self doubt and allow for alternate theories of reality,” then maybe we can get somewhere.

Write down some top problems in your life. Try a few spells to correct those problems. Fairly judge if anything happens - whether or not exactly what you want happens. Go from there.

[questionablewitch]

🌟 Simple / “Beginner” Spells 🌟

though i do not myself believe in the concept of a “beginner” spell, a lot of new witches often ask me what i recommend for them to start with. here’s some of the simpler lot, that should be easier to perform.

🌟 simple glamours:

shine like the sun - to be radiant like the sun

glow like the moon - to reclaim youth and past beauty

🌟 simple relationship spells:

sweeten your feelings - simple jar spell to sweeten a bond

rose bath spell -  a bath of roses and milk to gather love and beauty 

fries friendship ritual -  simple spell of binding friendships. 

respect jar spell - simple jar spell to help gain respect

🌟 simple self care spells:

restarting spell -  a ritual for fresh starts, to remove old energies, and invite new ones in

stuffed animal sleep spell -  a spell for keeping negativity out of dreams, whether it’s pain, difficult subjects, or people that hurt you.

face wash spell -  a simple spell to promote beautiful or healthy skin.

soft shores bath spell -  for peace and tranquility in one’s life and energy

jar spell for clarity -  for emotional/mental clarity and wisdom 

rose quartz healing tears - simple ritual to heal emotions

🌟 simple curses / hexes:

nox - a spell to end a source of light or positivity

pumpkin head curse - seasonal curse to “burn” those who wrong you

burn your wishes - a simple curse to destroy someone’s wishes

🌟 simple miscellaneous spells:

simple study spell - scent-based studying/memory spell

finding things/memory spell -  a spell for when many things go missing, to help things reappear

rosemary memory spell -  a simple spell for when you need help remembering something 

plant growth spell -  a spell for helping plants/herbs grow and stay alive

pastel stars -  a spell to enchant paper stars with luck, love, happiness

how not to suck at dark souls - a simple spell

[questionablewitch]

I feel like these 5 things were the most important pieces for me to build the foundation of my personal witchcraft practice:

1) be curious and develop your critical thinking - ask questions. Allow yourself to follow down rabbit holes of thought. Let yourself follow link after link through Wikipedia. Fall asleep in a bed of library books with conflicting information and have the skills to sort out what’s right and true for your practice.

2)  learn a bit of the history of witchcraft - Enough to know that the “Burning Times” were not a thing, there is no unbroken line of ancient witches, that the rise of modern witchcraft and our contemporary understanding of it grew (and changed) out of the Wiccan religion from the middle of last century and filtered through the 80s “Satanic Panic” and the 90s “love and light”, that actions and beliefs that look like witchcraft exist in many folk and cultural traditions but they are only witchcraft when self identified as such.

3) The mechanics of your practice - whether it is an existing magical tradition or a practice you have built from scratch, whether is is religious or secular - know your own mechanics. Knowing mechanics isn’t the same as knowing how magic works. Knowing mechanics is understanding the why of you practice and the how you do your practice. What value do you find in techniques, correspondences, paradigms, and methods that go into your practice? Are you doing things by rote or have you found personal gnosis? That being said, you don’t owe anyone any explanation, you should just know it for yourself.

4) Know theyself- this is more than just high magick navel gazing. Know yourself and what you are capable of. What your boundaries are, how you react to certain things, whether you can actually commit to celebrating every moon cycle, setting realistic expectations and goals for yourself, learning that constantly comparing your practice to others can be a hindrance and keep you from focusing on you own practice.

5) How to claim your space - this, to me, is such an important foundation and a way to put all the other things in practice. This can be your own combination of cleansing (mundane and magical) , protecting, warding, defense, and safety. This can be applied to physical spaces and witchy spaces. This is making your house or other space your sanctuary. Also, knowing some fire safety so as to not set your claimed space on fire or knowing enough about herbs you decide to work with so as to not get poisoned.

A lot of this isn’t even spell work. It’s just study and observation. This is just a good place to start. I see a lot of witchlings scared to do spell work or not knowing where to start, just pick a direction and go. You’ll learn things along the way, sometimes not even things you were looking for. They might not be useful now, but they might later. You are building skills, and with any skills, it takes time. You should enjoy that process.

[questionablewitch]

Is Witchcraft a Placebo?

What is the “placebo effect” -  a beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment

One of the hardest aspects of witchcraft is proving it actually works. When it comes to spell jars, sigils, and other energy type work the only proof we have of its abilities to actually do anything is our own experiences.

Think of it this way:

You create a spell jar to banish negative energy from your home. You’ve been having this feeling in your gut that something just isn’t right. When you come home you feel some sort of bad mojo around you.

So you put together a spell jar. You collect all your ingredients and you perform your spell. Everything went just as planned and you have your jar all finished. You decide to place it on your altar or maybe you choose to bury it in your yard, or place it somewhere hidden like a closet or dresser..

You start to feel a lightness surrounding you (like that heavy bad feeling is gone or at the very least, slowing dissipating). ~ it’s working ~ the spell is actually working…. or is it?

You’ve been told that this will banish the negative energy from your home and you believe it. So did a jar full of herbs, objects and whatever else you used actually banish the negative energy? Or did it work because you believed it would? 

We’ve argued to a point of exhaustion about intent in witchcraft. “All you need is intent, everything else is just extra shit.” You ever wonder why witches tell you this? It’s because they have some awareness that all you need to do is believe it works and it’ll work. 

I’m not one of these witches lol. I’m into science and hard facts. Which is probably why my craft mostly centers around herbalism (and the medicinal properties of herbs) but I do still use crystals, candles and I’m a tarot reader but that doesn’t mean I’m not self-aware. I understand that my craft will be questioned and what kind of witch would I be if I didn’t also question my own craft and how it works. 

Of course I’m not saying magick isn’t real or that witchcraft is just made up bologna. I am a witch afterall lol. What I am saying is that witchcraft and the placebo effect are very similar.

There have been medical studies where they’ve found that more than 30% of those given a placebo reported the same results as those given the actual drug. This begs the question; are the active ingredients (or properties) in the drugs actually doing anything? or is the power of suggestion strong enough to mimic the results of the drug in question?

Thoughts?

[questionablewitch]

I’ve come up with a fun list of areas in witchcraft you should start working on based on your zodiac sign. This is based on the common personality traits related to each sign.

♈ Aries: Sigils

♉ Taurus: Crystals

♊ Gemini: Spells

♋ Cancer: Tarot

♌ Leo: Candle Magick

♍ Virgo: Kitchen Magick

♎ Libra: Meditation

♏ Scorpio: Astral Projection

♐ Sagittarius: Ritual Magick

♑ Capricorn: Herblism

♒ Aquarius: Astrology 

♓ Pisces: Spirit Work

Of course you can study and practice whatever you like, this is just something I did for fun. So have fun! 

[questionablewitch]

I don’t need to put a name to the amazing, boundless, amorphous energy that makes up the entire universe to be valid and powerful.

Atheist witches are valid.

Witches who practice secular witchcraft are valid.

[questionablewitch]

☆What to put in your Book Of Shadows!☆

(This post is inspired by a baby witch in our Coven @andtrickfucker)

Starting as up as a witch can often be overwhelming and confusing. We’ve all been there when we sit with our grimoire, a pen out as we stare down at an empty piece of paper, a small (hypothetical) tear rolling down our face as we attempt to write something down, only to discover that we have no idea what to do and where to start. As two witches who have most definitely struggled with this before we decided that it would be very important for us to make a list to help you all out!

Firstly, we’d start out with the very basics of witchcraft! 

(Obviously according to whatever craft you do but lets just assume the general craft for now and work with what we’ve got.)

☆ Ask yourself what path you follow, what sort of craft do you practice? Is there anything specific you what to jot down about your craft? If so, note it at the start of your grimoire! It could be super helpful to you in the future.       ☆ If you’re not an atheistic witch then you can also mention what deities you worship and those in their pantheon (unless you’re an animistic witch!) ☆ You could write about the elements and moon cycles, as some witches find this to be very important to them!  ☆ Do you have some crystals that are your favourite to work with? Write them down, and what you use them for! (We have some information about this here!)       ☆ You can even write down how to charge and cleanse them and even how you intended to use them in spells!   ☆ Do you use a lot of herbs and plants? Write them down too! If you’re fairly arty like us don’t be afraid to do a little sketch of whatever you’re writing!       ☆ Like crystals, you could write down when or how to use them. It doesn’t have to be detailed or complex, just do it in a way that you’ll remember or understand! ☆ Candles are often important too, so (even if you’re not particularly interested in candle magic) it might be helpful to have them in there as well. If you write their correspondences down too, it’ll save you a bunch of time looking through the internet for their meaning, trust me.

Do you practice divination and spirit work?

☆Tarot references can be helpful, especially if you don’t have a book to learn or work from! You could even write down the results of your tarot readings, keeping a note of exactly what you’ve been pulling and how you’ve been doing reading wise!(You might wanna ask for permission if you’re going to write about readings you’ve done on others though!)  ☆ How to use a crystal ball, if you have one! ☆ How to sense auras and what they mean. ☆ If you use rune stones it might be helpful for you to write down their names and meanings!(Wilde uses runes a lot and had to do this because she gets confused and forgets the meanings of runes almost 24/7) Again, if you want, you can write about the outcomes of your readings. ☆ How to use a pendulum.

Spell work

☆ An inventory of different salts, herbs and crystals; branching away from your most used and favourites! you never know, one might catch your eye! ☆ Different types of spells (clearly)! We find it helps if you split them up categorically but if you don’t want to then don’t do it! Write down your hexes, curses, charms and your run of the mill spells, especially ones that you’ve written yourself!

Miscellaneous

☆ How to make sigils and the sigils themselves!         ☆ If you use other peoples sigils write them down with there meanings too, that way you don’t forget or you don’t use a sigil that you wanted to work with later on! ☆ Notes on how you feel or your specific emotions. This is important because emotions can obviously influence and change the way spells and sigils work!  ☆ Do you use astrology? Write down the zodiac signs and their correspondences, along with the stars, the planets and everything in between! ☆ How to meditate and the benefits of meditation. ☆ Types of salts and their purposes. ☆ How to make different types of oils. ☆ How to make different types of waters! ☆ How to make your own candles. ☆ How to make your own salves! ☆ A magical cookbook!

Remember! Your grimoire doesn’t have to look perfect (Quinn’s is an absolute state) As long as it holds the information you need and as long as you can read it that’s the only thing that matters!

As suggested by @maikawethiel make a digital version to keep with you at all times! You can do this via word online, google documents or even evernote which you can then download onto a portable device! This can be handy for emergancy situations too!

I know this isn’t everything you could possibly put in your grimoire however feel free to reblog and add to it!! Blessed be! -Wilde and Quinn