studyofwitchery

[studyofwitchery]

Sage Burned, Nightmare to Follow

I could count on my hands, albeit more than one, to recall each nightmare I’ve ever had. But before this too-early morning, I have never, ever, woken up with a start feeling afraid. Unsettled, uncomfortable, looking to turn a light on, all of these things yes. But today set a new precedent. Yesterday was one, too: I burned sage. First time in my life.

Sage burnings are a mixed bag. Some people {anecdotally} report worse activities after, the sense of paranormal accompanied with evil intent. You hear a thing from a man on the internet that tells you how a magi told him that white sage is for inviting demons in. Old spirits you don’t know, and the like. You don’t quite believe it, because it’s not the majority of what the rest of them say.

Others will tell you it takes all the negativity out of a space, and you might want to fill it. Palo Santo, which translates directly from Spanish to holy wood, is chosen by some to be ritually burned after, to invite the positive after the space has been spiritually emptied.

Then there’s the energy-moving. It’s seriously advised to open a window so the energy can leave. I live above the arctic circle, so I could not open my frozen-over window, but I parted the curtains to let the natural draft in.

Do I, before and after research, think it was the coffee I had in the late afternoon, as someone who doesn’t have caffeine often and finds myself more sensitive to it? It’s the logical assumption when coffee sparked anxiety before. But as someone who deals in the study of psychology of my self, I know it was at a time when I was more susceptible to those little anxiety attacks a tasty cup of coffee brought me. I also know that there is not always just one solution. When dealing with psychology, it’s often multiple that can be broken down from there.

So I wonder: did the sage burning, the first in my life, over a year since I moved away from my former church… did it affect me?

There’s one final aspect of sage. Nightmares aren’t unheard of following a burning. Experiencing them indicates a need to reflect on the contents of the nightmare, which may have been stirred up from the smoke, as something that needs to be processed and made clean as well.

An aspect of the nightmare really stood out to me. An ex I was quick to form positive relations with a few days after breaking up. What resurfaced in my brain was what I had intentionally repressed to be friends with him: a cold, uncaring demeanor that I had recently discovered. It was as if he was a different person… one I didn’t want to believe. And the person came back in my dream to remind me that he still existed, even if I never see that side again.

It very well could’ve been the mix of factors. But it sure made for an interesting post today.

[studyofwitchery]

The Un-importance of Legitimacy in Magic

The word spell and witch go hand in hand. Some who make spells believe mainly in the power of belief. You could use the word placebo, or liken it to meditation, these rituals. 'Visual / mental aides to help intentions.' Not everyone believes in them even as they do them, but from what I've found, even if they don't change the situation, they change one's perspective and mental health for the better!

It gives one a feeling of support, surrounded by healing crystals and spells, and likewise, being aware of these things can set one's mind on what they want to be achieved. In this view, they seem no different than a christian prayer. I remember the question of do prayers work? in a religious educational class, and it was answered by saying that you never really know what will happen or what god will do, etc., but the point is to pray. That prayer doesn't work in the mythical magical way you think, to change the circumstances around you. Mainly it changes you, and you change the world. I see these little rituals as being one and the same.

America and Western cultures, I see them doing away with the more Eastern herbal and natural practices. Palm readings and tarot are regarded as a joke. Crystals, spells, and sage burnings fall under the same umbrella, but that pill-popping dystopian culture is disconnected from the true benefits of the world around us, and forming a relationship with it. A lot of mental damage occurs when there is no healthy support or coping mechanisms.

If there is no greater universal power, there is no harm here in believing. Nobody's staking their life on it, like I thought I needed to do for my previously followed religion.

Now that I stake my life on nothing, only aiming to preserve and nourish it, I just do what feels good. Meditating with rose quartz for self love, setting up crystal grids with pretty and colorful minerals, and smoking out negative energy from rooms feels good. Some believe in future-telling and higher powers. Me? I'll stay in the symbolic realm, where I can point to scientific articles and logical thoughts of psychological change.

But maybe I said a little prayer to my amethysts to help out a stuck friend... and the problem resolved itself a couple minutes later. Crystal power, or coincidence? There might never be a way to know... so maybe I'll find myself saying the universe helped me out 😉

[studyofwitchery]

Magic Versus Magick; the heck?

I noticed a difference of spelling. I've peeked into the rabbit-hole and have found that the term 'magick' was coined as a specific differential against stage magic or fantasy magic, coined by a dark-eyed dead man named Aleister Crowley, a 20th century occultist and religion-founder. His religion was Thelema, based off the Greek word for 'will.' As in, do what thou will. He wrote religious texts based off (according to him) an entity when he was in a trance-like state. I don't buy this at all. Too many religions start this way, it feels too cliche. In any case, he became a person of cultural interest post-mortem.

Circling back, the term of magick is about 'aligning oneself with natural forces to manifest an intention.' Okay! So significantly less scary than anything to do with a man who was said to have ignored some survivors' pleas for help.

The entrenched fear instilled through years of christian teaching remains in me. I wonder if I am "opening myself up to the devil, or other evil spirits." Stories are heard of terrible things, of possessions. I wish I knew the truth. But I don't, so I will continue my path of research.

[studyofwitchery]

The General First Impression of Witchery

I'd heard the terms wiccan, pagan, green and white witch. What did they mean? How'd they differ? I'm walking into these questions with no idea.

The only knowledge I had was of how movies and media portrayed witches. I'd watched the Harry Potter series of course, and Hocus Pocus growing up. But the thing about that, is that it's always fictitious or a caricature of the idea of the Middle Ages Witch. The real history of the middle age witch is history I haven't even gotten to yet, but I already know it's something deeper than the history books.

[ Don't listen to history books. Just use them as a guide to research topics for yourself. ]

The first impression of trying to see what types of witches there are, and what they do, brings the idea there isn't any universal rules, guides, rituals, or so forth. A quick google search brings up a sample of the many, and it's easy to be lost in.

there's so many!!

. . .

The next thing one might do is google "witchcraft for beginners," as beginners ask for an introduction into what it is and need to know the basics, as I am personally trying to discover.

To be a witch, at least in the circles I used to run in- was considered a more new-age affair, a following of a trend, a pulling of power where no one should pull power, but as I research it... I realize in the differing beliefs of energies and entities in tandem with rituals makes it much more like religion that anyone admitted.

It can be a personal, disorganized religion, and I've also found it to be organized, which covens with leaders and years of apprenticeship. An article labeled "Witch Craft 101: How to Practice for Beginners" says this: "I first started practicing my craft around five years ago. As someone who has always had such a strong connection to the natural world around me, I felt very called to learn more about my environment, the elements, and the different energy I would tune into from time to time. 

There are MANY different types of craft, types of witches, energy, divination, and other tools that people like to incorporate into their own practices depending on what they feel called to. Some folks may resonate more with herbs and natural elements of the earth like myself, while some resonate with working with other energies, spirits, or deities."

I've found, in my scouring, that there's a surprising focus on healing, knowing oneself, and shadow work. All things I already focus on and appreciate working towards. There is of course usually a deep appreciation for nature, of which I have had since a child. And if you put it that way, maybe I wouldn't mind being a witch. I mean, I like rituals and leaves and candles and deeper meanings.

.

One question I seek to answer going further into my research: is the magic real? Indeed, are the spirits real?

[studyofwitchery]

Leaving Behind Everything

Imagine it.

Knowing the earth is round and seeing its curves and then, in a time where everything is flipped upside down, finding out that flat earthers, what you and everyone you knew used to make fun of, are the real truth. Suddenly you find yourself an outcast, the very thing you once looked down on.

I don't believe the earth is flat, but I did used to believe in god. specifically, of the many ideas of god, the one from the extensive series of books collectively called the bible. I was not what they would call lukewarm either, I regarded it as black and white, scientific truth,

until certain questions poked and prodded my brain and then something devastating: I couldn't answer them. Nor could I find any philosophical or theological answer for these horrible conflicts of belief and truth. I believed in truth first, over any belief, and even when the one "truth" I knew to be certain was THE truth, I accepted the questioning of the possibility it might not be out of principle.

So, as any honorable religious follower of Truth, Facts, Reasoning, and Nothing But the Truth, finding out that the idea of that god did not make logical sense, I become agnostic.

Naturally, it kind of cut me off from everyone and everything I knew. The worst thing was knowing exactly how they viewed me. Fallen, confused, rebelling against the Big Dad in the sky, being a little teenager about it. The real worst happening of that turbulant time however, would have to be the threat of eternal fear and pain by likes of which is too hellish to think about. All because I questioned the reality of a god I used to love above all else.

I can't find the answers to the questions, and had to make due with the fact there weren't any, and had to make due with the fact there is nothing replying when I scream at the sky.