#grimoire organisation

[pigeonflavouredcake]

How to organise a grimoire

This is how I've decided to organise my grimoire now that I'm digitising it. I thought this may be of some benefit to other autistic/dyslexic practioners by sharing how my brain likes to formulate things. The trick is to categorise.

I have one large category I'm calling the chapter and every chapter has a number of categories within it and smaller sub categories underneath each one.

So my brain basically works like a russian nesting doll or like a very messy spider diagram. Organising it this way helps me to stay on track and stops me from getting overwhelmed. (I used this method in all my university essays and it helped push my grade up a lot).

I'm not writing it in any specific order but here's a list of what I've completed so far. Please feel free to take any of these. I hope this helps you with your own grimoire writing.

Theory 📚

Terminology

Paganism: historical context. Modern context. Core values.

New Age Spirituality: Development. Capitalism. Modern Example.

Cultural Appropriation: What it is. How it happens. How to avoid it. List of closed practices and red flags.

Wicca: What it is. How it's practiced. Gerald Gardner. Criticisms.

Thelema: Aleister Crowley. Development (egyptomania). Criticisms.

Conspiracy Theories: Development (root cause). Dangers. Examples. List of spiritual conspiracies. List of antisemitic stereotypes and propaganda.

Cults: What are they. How are they dangerous. How to recognise one (B.I.T.E model). List of religious/spiritual cults.

Satanic Panic: Historical development to our current satanic panic. The 1980's moral panic. Christian persecution complex.

KJV: Who was King James. The creation of the KJV. The KJO movement (evangelical and Christian fundamentalism. American Folk magic)

Witches in context: The modern witch. The post-modern witch. Historical context (England. Ancient Greece. Ireland).

Cats in context: Modern context. Familiars. Historical context (Egypt. Greece. China. England).

Transphobia: the idea behind terfism. How to recognise a terf. Examples of Terfism in spirituality (Lister). Dispelling myths and Misinformation.

Queerness: Erasure and queerphobia. Why queer people gravitate to witchcraft/paganism/Wicca. Examples (intersex. Gay relationships. Lesbian relationships. Asexuality).

Practical Basics 🔮

Terminology

Health and Safety: Fire. Smoke. Essential Oils. Toxicity. Wound Care. Biohazards.

How to make a magical space: What they are. Different types. Tools and their uses.

Grimoire/Book of Shadows: What they are. The differences. Different Formats. The Front cover.

Cleansing: What it is. What its used for. Examples.

Grounding: What it is. What its used for. Examples.

Protection: What it is. What its used for. Examples.

Intuition: What it is. What its used for. Developing it. Examples.

Discernment: What it is. What its used for. Steps of discernment (from a Christian perspective. From a secular perspective). Psychosis.

The Year and the holidays: Samhain. Yule. Wassailing. Imbolc. Spring Equinox. Beltaine. Summer Solstice. Lughnasadh. Autumn Equinox. (Historical development. How they're celebrated).

Deity Worship: Scientific Context (Neuroscience of Religiosity). Spiritual Context. Worship Vs working with. Finding a deity. Your religious rights. Critiquing your religious path. For example ↓

Hellenism: Historical context (Wars. Colonisation. Slavery. Citizenship. Pederasty). Modern Context (White washing. Transphobia).

Your Deities (if you choose to have any): Iconography. Mythology. Associations. Offerings.

Spirits: Ghosts. Shadow people. Demons (what they are. fear and labelling. History Vs pop culture). The Warrens (history. Criticisms). Other folklore.

Practical Magic ✨

I have a lot more planned for this section.

Terminology

Divination: What it is. What its used for. List of types and tools. For example ↓

Tarot: Structure of the tarot deck. Historical context. Modern Context. The fool and you.

Basic Astrology: What it is. Historical Context. Signs. Planets. Houses. Reading a natal chart.

Colour Magic: Basic colour theory. Symbolism. Practical application.

Correspondence 🌿

When there's a long list of items and spiritual meanings/applications I keep it in this section at the back of my grimoire.

Colours

Symbols

The Classic Elements

Astrology

Stones

Herbs and Spices (kitchen cupboard specific)

Common plants in your area (invasive and non invasive)

Seasonal fruit and vegetables

Miscellaneous laws and philosophies

[firewindearthsea]

If you have more ideas than you have creative input, consider using post it notes to mark out where you want things to go in your book

[isuckmorethanjustblood]

Alternatives to physical altars for witches and pagans who can’t practise openly:

If you don’t have the money or space for an altar or you live with someone who does not support your craft, there are a few altarnatives for you to consider:

A SMALL POCKET ALTAR INSIDE OF A MINT TIN

this could contain incense, prayer cards, a tea light, small crystals or some herbs

Pros:

- easy to hide and portable

- inconspicuous

- inexpensive

- simple to make

Cons:

- you can’t keep a lot of things in there

- you can’t really use it for offerings unless they are very small

- not very customisable

A DIGITAL ALTAR / GRIMOIRE

this could be in the form of a tumblr blog, a Pinterest board or a simple notes page

Pros:

- simple to make

- very customisable

- unlimited space

- easy to hide

- you can access it from anywhere

- you can get very creative with your spells and offerings

- useful for shadow work and divination, since you can document your progress

- very easy to navigate and organise

Cons:

- you can’t make physical offerings

- no physical spell work (like jars or candles)

A NOTEBOOK AS AN ALTAR

an analogue notebook that you can use like a mix of a journal / grimoire / altar

Pros:

- very versatile and customisable

- you can use it as an altar to place physical offerings on

- easily portable

- useful for a lot of different things

- great for small offerings (like pressed flowers and herbs, photos, drawings and poetry / prayer

- useful for shadow work and divination, since you can document your progress

- easy and cheap to make

- inconspicuous

Cons:

- no unlimited space, if you fill it up you need to buy a new one

- no offerings larger than the book

- difficult to navigate if you don’t have a good index system

- not great for physical spells like jars or candles

DIGITAL ALTAR IN VIDEO GAMES

this can be an altar space that you build in games like Minecraft or animal crossing

Pros:

- somewhat customisable

- very fun to build

- you can make offerings like Minecraft flowers or dressing your character up in clothes that remind you of your deity

- playing the game and putting energy into it can be an offering in itself

- unlimited space (depends of the game)

Cons:

- no physical offerings and very limited options for spells

- how much you can do depends a lot on the game

- good video games and consoles often cost money and are thus not accessible to everyone

- no (or very limited) options for writing down prayers and the like

- limited option for devotional acts

Whatever your altar space looks like and whether you even have one at all, remember that you are still valid and your gods love you and understand your situation.

[wolverinesorcery]

What is a commonplace book

Commonplace books are a method of compiling knowledge into one place, traditionally by handwriting but more recently with computers/word processors. They’re different from journals in that rather than containing exclusively personal thoughts or feelings, they’re a collection of external writings, informations, or other snippets of things recorded whenever it is encountered + usually organised.

To simplify – a commonplace book contains anything that captured it’s owners attention! Poems, extracts of fiction & non fiction writings, remarks or comments by others, anecdotes, observations, pertinent images, or other things along the same lines are all things that belong in a commonplace book!

Commonplace books have quite the history – their uses range between reading logs, reference books for students, and historically they were required by young women to demonstrate their upbringing.

How do they work

The exact system you use in your commonplace book is entirely up to you and what you will remember to use. Usually information is organised under themed/topic-based headings, but this can be as flexible or stiff as the keeper desires. My personal commonplace book is organised by source material – all of my book extracts & notes are kept together and demarcated by paperclips.

A commonplace book has no requirements in terms of physical format, size, page type, etc. As long as it is something you will be able to keep using happily! There is also no rules around decorating any pages with stickers or washi tape, or any rules around using sticky notes to add information on the go.

A commonplace book can also be as expansive or restricted as possible in terms of subject matter. For example, I keep a specific commonplace book for Babalon & Sekhmet. Nothing else enters this book.

What’s their use in religious practice or witchcraft?

A commonplace book can function as an in-between for a Grimoire (a book of magical knowledge and instruction, usually written by someone else and usually for transmitting knowledge within a specific tradition or branch of religion/witchcraft) & a Witchbook/Book of Shadows (more akin to a magical/religious journal for recordkeeping). They’re also exceptionally useful if you read a lot of metaphysical, occult or spiritual/religious books and want to keep organised notes in a hard copy form!

Commonplace books can be used to record interesting information from other, non-metaphysical but useful sources too, foraging notes and recipes are an obvious choice to keep a record of, along with notes about celestial events from astronomy sources.

In some cases, a commonplace book can also be a devotional activity, or a shrine of sorts. Commonplace books as a devotional activity is easy to parse – collecting and mindfully recording information about an entity, deity, divinity or other spirit is a good means to show care and interest.

A commonplace book as a shrine has a similar function to an e-shrine on tumblr, by collecting things that remind or represent an entity, deity, divinity or other spirit, a notebook can be made into a shrine or sacred object. This can also be a useful way to have a sacred touchpoint with an entity and keep it relatively out of sight, for those who are not open about their practice.

Examples

More reading on Commonplace books

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book - The wiki page for Commonplace books that delves into their general & regional history, along with more variations on memory/infokeeping under See Also

https://notebookofghosts.com/2018/02/25/a-brief-guide-to-keeping-a-commonplace-book/ - A brief history & how-to on commonplace books, along with notable people that kept one.

https://bookriot.com/commonplace-book/ - An informal look at commonplace books, including using a tumblr blog/other digital formats as a commonplace book.

https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book-ea80e25b63f1 - Information about commonplace books, alternatives to notebooks, and a small guide.

[belphegor1982]

GUYS. I've been DMing for a grand total of 6 sessions for one PC (the Best Beloved's half-orc barbarian Ushnar) but today's session was at my DM's (who runs the campaign I play my halfling bard Malva for), with him, his 25 year old daughter (who's a sweetheart) and the Best Beloved and -

Look, on one hand it was stressful because I've been preparing for weeks, making a dungeon, organising encounters, trying to gauge the difficulty levels and the number of zombies/skeletons, plotting the betrayal of the mage NPC who hired Ushnar and sidekick/NPC Mélodie du Ruisseau* to save his master (actually distract him to steal his grimoire!)... (*Tabaxi names are often "of [something]", and the word "ruisseau" can mean both a stream/brook or the gutter - fitting for a former urchin!)

Oh, I probably made mistakes, there's a couple of concentration checks I forgot to track, but it was SO FUN 😀 We played all day! My DM and his wife had made pizzas, daughter a cake, and we'd brought juices and sodas and we had a blast. I made sure the players had fun, I did voices (zombies and skeletons are so fun, guys), I Yes Anded the hell out of things (the cleric's Turn Undead frightened off my three skeletons and one zombie, they all spent at least one turn hitting the wall like video game glitches, it was hilarious!!)... and after the battle the PCs realised the mage had managed to get away with his master's grimoire, so that's one enemy that'll most likely pop up again one day :D

You know what, tough? I'm really proud, because everyone had a great time, and my DM not only really loved the initiative rolls + paper character tents over the DM screen (and plans to use it for our next sessions), but also congratulated my DMing several times and at some point in the game told the Best Beloved that my halfling bard's inspirations were awesome and made them laugh a lot!! I was just Red in the face and grinning from ear to ear 😊

Now it's midnight and I'm already searching for ideas for the next arc, because it looks like I levelled up from DM of one to DM of three ^^

[pinkandpurple360]

I think another thing that bothers me about the way Fizz is written in season two is not only him losing that bite he had in Ozzie's and his robotic version of him, that him being disabled and portrayed as weak that need babying and needing approvel from everyone is dishearting.

I have various disabilities myself, more so developmental than physical but seeing a character like Fizz, who lost so much and likely had to learn how to walk all over again and make adjustments to his life due to said disability yet still make a name for himself and becoming a successful celebrity on his own (tho I'm sure having two powerful Sins around your finger helps) is kind of empowering. That and his snark and 'eat shit' attitude who'd gladly roast and drag your corpse around after a sick burn, even to those that are a danger to him was so much fun plus also added the fact he's disabled. I love that chaotic gremlin man.

To take that away that part of him, to make him lose his bite not only to make him seem like the perfect victim of abuse but also taking away his agency as someone who's disabled is a slap in the face.

Hope this made sense I'm typing this on my phone.

Makes complete sense to me, when you’re handling a disabled character it has to be done carefully to keep the power on their side, and this series just failed and fell on its face completely.

I kept awaiting a big reveal that our ✨jester ✨was actually slippery and he was conning both of the king sins. Cause that’s what a jester does, laugh at royalty, hide criticism behind laughter, behind a fake show of submissiveness, represent the bridge between the working class and the monarchy, with emphasis on the peasant side getting their voice heard. He’s literally inspired by Beetlejuice after all. Remember how much of a trickster he was?? Not a “pillow princess” who says “pwease big daddy” can I go for walkies?

Like maybe a scene where Oz comes home one day, unexpectedly early and Fizz is preparing this extravagant three course meal for himself , then he sees him and drops a plate turn laughs nervously when he sees that he’s back. “Oh Oz..youre back…Ehehe…i er uh…took up a cooking class?” There’s also the fact he organises Ozzies schedule for him and without fizz it seemingly falls apart, he’s the real boss behind it all. Except he’s not.

Or maybe that Barbie wasn’t actually in rehab but was pedalling the Lord of sloth Belphegors drugs between hell and earth, while Fizz was selling off Asmodean crystals and most likely he gave her one. Hell, maybe even that Wally Wackford was after the factory assets of Asmodeus and used to be a member of their circus. I even had an idea in my head of this big Katie Killjoy scene where they do an “expose” on a clown imp illegally using the Goetia grimoire of a horny idiot of a Prince. “But forget that melodramatic nonsense—here’s a real Scoop!!” just more of Barbie and Fizz upstaging Blitzø even at committing crimes.

I’m excited to see what will be done with robot fizz. Because they’re definitely doing something with him…hopefully not just kissing Ozzie or something though.

And there’s a story for ya …but…no…they’re just his daddies whose approval means everything to him, and without at least one of them to reassure him and be proud of him, he literally says he feels like he’s just nothing. Nice one Viv. He doesn’t have two sins around his finger he’s wrapped around theirs and pulled along by their whims.

All we get about his recovery is “it was painful and challenging and I’m still mad but its ok because I have a rich boyfriend”

I mean seriously. He was only about what 7-8 years old and the star of an all imp circus that even royalty were impressed by, that’s all his talent nobody elses, he doesn’t need any boy, man, or blueblood to tell him that. But this series just worships at the feet of the rich.

[motleyfolk]

Craft/Lifestyle Bookmarks

Since tumblr mobile tags play up, just compiling all my bookmarks here, so I can use it on mobile and find things easier. None are like fact-checked, using them as inspo or starting points. Some are taken from solarpunksoup’s soup.

Last updated: 14/12/23

Herbology and Nature

Alchemy Works - Herb and Resins for Magic Enyclopedia Type Thing (found from this post)

Bee Friendly Garden

Bird Feeding

Free Seeds

Gardening for Climate Resistance

Guerilla Gardening

Heirloom Seeds

Plant Insiders Knowledge

Plant Dye for Fabrics

Recommended Reading

Seed Saving

Veg Growth Cheat Sheet

Pinkies Parlour - Janky old website but has info on flowers and religious symbology.

Physical Craft/Hobby

Toilet Roll Satchel

Cleansing and Another

Sewing, Mending, Craft

Projects & Patterns

Misc Projects

Making Stuff & Doing Things Book Rec

Miracle Hands - Free hobby and craft craftbook and pattern downloads

Practice Prayer  - Lil affirmation/helpful customizable tool for whatever hobby you have.

Tips for writing

Poetic/Thought Provoking

The weird little kid

Sustainability

Worshipping The World

Life/Craft

How To Sleep Better

Wardrobe Management + Misc

Thrifting Online

Make Your Own Socks

Mega Cooking Help

Random Life Skills (how to unclog toilet n stuff)

Upcycling Jumpers

Misc Recipes/Craft Stuff

Baking With Brain Fog and/or Arthritis - Includes tips for other disabilities

Solarpunk Masterlist - Cool SP list by @evilautisticsociety​

Journaling Prompts - Inspo if you don’t like writing diary entries and wnat other ways to journal.

More Journaling Prompts

Unfuck Your Habitat - How to clean your house, get rid of shitty habits in a gender neutral, inclusive of the mentally ill, students, full time job-ers, etc that fts small or large challenges, simple cleaning checklists, etc.

The Order of the Good Death - The current western funeral practices are bad for the community and environment, this site discusses that and gives you several ways to change it, from small personal to wider community.

New Year Resolution alt mindset

How to keep yourself warm in cold houses or outdoors

Mental/Physical Health

You feel like shit. - Simple interactive, flow chart questionnaire to help you identify why you’re feeling like shit right now and to make sure you’ve done basic self-care. *

the quiet place - 90 second relaxation exercise on stepping back from social media *

Pixel Thoughts - Put your worry in a star and watch it disappear in 60 seconds. *

Meditation Basic Instructions - Helpful detailed guide on meditating.

A Soft Murmur - Ambient Sound Mixer

Baking With Brain Fog and/or Arthritis - Includes tips for other disabilities

Self Care Checklist

softheartclinic - Cutesy self care fun

Scarleteen - Inclusive sex education website

The Analog Brain - Helps with executive dysfunction, figuring out if this is an impulsive decision. Lil question tool thingy

Taking care of your spine

Tarot

Year Ahead Tarot

Spells

Anatomy of a Spell

Basics of Spellcraft

Magic Circle for Spellcasting

Seeds of The Future Spell

Spell Design

Spell Dictation

Writing Spells for Beginners

Grimoire/Shadow Work/Exercises

Dig Through The Ditches

Grimoire Prompts and Another and Another

Home Brews

Make Your Own Folklore

Shadow Work Prompts

Organising Study Materials

Quantifying Your Craft

Yule

A neurodivergent witch's guide to starting a grimoire

Misc Resources

Witchy Resource Doc - Includes books, websites, yters, ingredients, etc.

Online Research

Research Jumping Points Inspo

How To Ward and Another

Recommended Reading  

Cailleach’s Herbarium - Scottish Folk Practitioner, lots of Scottish based history, folk magic, folklore, etc.

What is Sympathetic Magic - Infographic and links

Historical Scottish Beltane

Witchcraft on a budget

[convexicalcrow]

funny idea if you want it. Cub is a powerful magic user and takes Scar as his apprentice. And lots of antics ensue from that, mainly with Scar getting in over his head, trying to fix is mistakes, and Cub having to make sure to teach Scar how to not do that again.

It's not that Cub hadn't wanted to take on an apprentice, it's just-

He winced as he heard yet another crash from the alchemy lab, and dared not think what on earth had gone wrong this time. He sighed, put down his papers, and went to investigate.

The alchemy lab was situated in a higher part of the castle, but the location didn't particularly matter all that much save that it had a window and a sky light to allow for the capture and distillation of moonlight. Normally - well, until Cub had taken on this apprentice - the lab was neat and tidy and very well organised. Now? Well.

Smashed vials on the floor, a slight acrid stench drifting across the air, some illuminated liquid staining the benchtop, and in the middle of it all, a man in a light purple robe clearly in the midst of panic.

"Did you add the ingredients in the wrong order again, Scar?" Cub said.

"I was following all the instructions so carefully! I read them out to myself so many times before I did anything! How did it go wrong again?" Scar said, picking up his grimoire to gesticulate at the page he had been working from. "You helped me annotate it and everything!"

"So what happened?" Cub said.

"I don't know! Maybe I- oh. I, um. Okay, I think I see what I did wrong. That's drops, not teaspoons. Whoops! That was way too much dew of lunecense! That's what happened! Sorry, master!" Scar said, realising his error.

Cub crossed his arms and sighed. "Are you sure you actually know how to cast magic?"

"I do! I do! I went to wizard school and everything! I just- sometimes I read things wrong, that's all! And hey, my levitation potion was just fine, so it's not like I'm totally useless!" Scar protested.

Cub had to concede that point. Scar's levitation potion had indeed been a success, weirdly, so he clearly had some potential. "Alright, alright. Let's just clean all this up and maybe I'll teach you some runes tonight. You can't possibly mess those up the way you mess potions up, right?"

"Well, I hope not!" Scar said. "Runes sound fun!"

Indeed, runes were very fun. So much fun, in fact, that Scar managed to write two runes backwards, causing bright orange smoke to start flowing out of the chimney of the library, while trying to cast a protection bindrune.

Why had he taken on an apprentice again? He'd been very happy in his castle all on his own. But no, someone had needed a favour, and well.

He glanced down at the desk. The carpet had turned into purple lilacs. Fuck.

[hellishere7980]

IMW Chapter 11

Meanwhile in the Watchtower

The Watchtower was in chaos.

It had been 2 hours since the live broadcast broke and shocked the world. 2 hours since the Justice League realised they had missed something this big for almost eight years, and didn’t know about it until a week after the situation had been solved by a group of heroes that they had never heard of.

Every screen in the meeting room was on, flashing snippets of information about the reign of Shadow Moth. Videos of the battles and interviews, articles, websites and social media as their supercomputer compiled every bit of information it could find.

The room was filled with noise, a constant roar as everyone tried to be heard.

The magic users were together in a cluster; consulting books, grimoires, scrolls and each other in a confused panic.

They were muttering as they paced, wondering how they had missed magic of the magnitude Paris had witnessed when among them were some of the most powerful magic users on the planet; John Constantine, Zatanna and Doctor Fate.

Other members of the Justice League tried to make sense of it in their own way, arguing, (like children in Robin's view) as they scrambled to come up with any sort of reason for how something this big had gone unnoticed, why they had missed it and the reason behind it all in the first place.

Batman stood by himself, waiting for the super computer to finish so he could sort the information and start the process of following any leads he found to start answering the many questions he had. He was internally panicking about Isabella but shoved it down. First he’ll deal with this then open that can of worms.

His title as the World’s Greatest Detective had taken a blow. And so had his ego.

His Isa was in a warzone and hadn’t even known!

He changed into his Batman gear and walked into the zeta tube in time for the emergency meeting the Justice League had issued.

Everyone was in too much shock to start it productively, and they were stuck waiting for their supercomputer to finish its deep dive. The computer beeped, signalling that it had finished its task. The room fell into silence as everyone immediately turned their attention to the screens and monitors, and Batman begrudgingly did the same. For a second, no one moved, unsure who was going to begin to sort through and read out the info.

But Red Robin stepped up. For a moment Bruce wondered what Isa would have done with him for bonding? Shutting off that line of thinking, Batman hardened his heart as a wave of pain and grief washed over him as memories of her beautiful eyes floated through his head.

Now wasn’t the time to think about her. He had shipped her off for her safety. Nothing was going to change that.

Focusing back on the present, Batman watched as Red Robin sat in the chair in front of the keyboard connected to the largest monitors and grabbed the mouse, looking “This website was recommended by the French Government for anyone wanting information on what happened and it is the only website or platform that has the Court of Miracles’ stamp of approval on it. It’s linked to an app of the same name that has the alarm Paris used to alert its citizens of an Akuma attack and the attacks classification.” Red Robin said, voice carrying clearly over the silence in the room.

Batman watched as Red Robin brought up a website called Bug.Out, the screens in the meeting room showing it for everyone to see and at a quick glance, Batman was interested to see that a lot of the information he wanted was likely going to be found in that one website alone.

From what he could see from the homepage, it was very well organised. There were many clearly labelled drop-down headings that allowed for an easy search for information while below them was a link to download the Bug.Out app.

Red Robin clicked onto the Timeline tab and began at the beginning, speaking at first but trailing off as people began to talk, cutting him off to discuss what they learnt. As they got further through the Timeline, Batman got steadily more frustrated and horrified.

It started years ago, and victim zero had been an 13-year-old boy in school.

In front of his classmates, the boy, whose name wasn’t given for privacy reasons, was turned into a giant stone monster and went on a rampage, destroying everything in his way, killing hundreds of people and injuring many more before he was stopped by two heroes; Ladybug and Chat Noir.

The people of Paris didn’t have time to come to terms with what happened, stuck between panic at the attack that hadn’t been explained and awe at having heroes when a cloud of purple butterflies descended over the city, turning hundreds of people into giant stone beings and froze them in time.

The heroes weren’t seen for twenty-four hours as those people remained changed, frozen in their forms before the same eleven-year-old boy was turned back into the giant monster and began his rampage again, this time, with the help of the stone beings.

The destruction was city wide, the death toll becoming thousands before the original monster was stopped by Ladybug and Chat Noir once more, and the villain behind the attack introduced himself and gave an ultimatum to the two heroes.

Batman watched intently as Red Robin brought up the footage that had been recorded of that first battle, showcasing it across multiple screens.

Stoneheart stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower, his size causing it to groan and bend under his weight as he roared at the military and police personnel surrounding him and his small army of stone beings, a hostage clasped in each of his hands before he threw one. In a blur of red, Ladybug appeared and caught the girl, later identified as Chloé Bourgeois, before she splattered on the ground. After making the girl go to the barricade, Ladybug faced Stoneheart, Chat Noir landing beside her.

The military gave the order to open fire, but Ladybug told them to stand down, the order ringing out magically over the screams and noise. An argument ensued between her and the military, but the distance between the camera man and the hero made it impossible to hear what was being said. Attention only turned from the argument back to Stoneheart as the monster released a pained groan and a wave of glowing purple butterflies erupted from its mouth, forming a face high above the Eiffel Tower, shocking everyone into a fearful silence.

The face introduced itself as Hawkmoth and gave an ultimatum, demanding the heroes’ magic or it would destroy the city and kill everyone in it.

What Batman wasn’t expecting was for Ladybug to laugh and give a sarcastic applause as she walked towards the army of stone monsters like they were nothing, giving the newly introduced terrorist a reality check and a tongue lashing, promising him angrily that she would take his magic.

Ladybug then sprinted at the stone army, using her weapon to launch herself up and over them as they rushed her with a thunderous cry of fury. She then sent the weapon straight into the face of Hawkmoth, piercing him between the eyes. The villain shouted deafeningly in pain, despite not being there in person, and disappeared in a blinding flash of light, leaving everyone frozen in shock.

All that remained was Ladybug, standing in front of the Eiffel Tower; tall, confident and an unwavering pillar of strength as she promised that she would do everything in her power to bring Hawkmoth to justice and keep Paris safe, her voice magically amplified once more.

What followed was something the likes of which Batman had never seen before.

Lifting her hand above her head, her weapon clasped in it, a wave of glowing white butterflies burst from it flying in all directions covering the city. Many people captured them on camera and exclaiming in awe as they fluttered around them.

Batman watched the remaining battle between the heroes, Stoneheart and his army and saw how the heroes won. He studied closely how the akumatized boy transformed back into himself when they ripped a piece of paper and captured the purple butterfly that appeared out of it. But what caused his jaw to drop was when Ladybug vanished the parachute she had somehow summoned earlier in the fight.

Despite it being the second time Ladybug had displayed her magic, this was the first time it was caught on camera properly, and by more than one person.

It was beautiful; a wave of iridescent red that flew around the city, covering everything in its path and restoring everything to the way it had been before the battle.

The damage fixed, the injured healed, the monsters back into people and the dead alive.

Nothing Batman had ever seen was like that; the ability to reverse all of the damage, to bring people back from the dead and heal the injured in a matter of seconds, across a city the size of Paris and with a population of over two million.

No magic user was that powerful. Not Zatanna, Doctor Fate, or Constantine. No one had that kind of power. No one.

It was unreal. God-like. Terrifying.

[soulmuppet]

Esoteric Enterprises

by Emmy Allen / Dying Stylishly

Imagine the typical adventuring party of most old-school games, but in a modern-day setting. A world with police, the internet, chain stores... The familiar band of mercenaries, occultists, criminals, weirdos and outcasts drift into the underworld. This is the premise of Esoteric Enterprises: the occult exists in a dangerous black market, where organised criminals traffic in magical grimoires and relics alongside narcotics and weapons. Hidden from the public eye, various gangs, cults and covens struggle for influence and resources in the dark tunnels beneath every city. Beneath that, stranger things lurk; inhuman creatures turn their cold gaze on the mortals who intrude on their subterranean realm.

The book contains both player-facing rules and extensive GM tools.

On the player side, there are eight classes, covering various career criminals, mad doctors, occultists and mystic cultists, as well as a customisable ‘Spook’ class for non-human PCs.

The game rules will be familiar to fans of old-school roleplaying, providing a spin on traditional mechanics fitting for the modern setting. Combat is brutal, fast and can result in serious injury.

The GM’s section is designed to assist running a campaign straight out of the book. Included are guidelines to create an extensive undercity megadungeon and the complex network of factions within. The book is dense with sample content and random tables to generate your own setting.

The book is a full cover, A4 248 page hardback. Emmy Allen is responsible for Ennie Award winning The Garden's of Ynn, as well as the Stygian Library and Wolf-Packs and Winter Snow.

[bones33333]

books read so far and my thoughts

read:

Sigil Witchery (Laura Tempest Zakroff)

The complete grimoire (Lydia Pradas)

Moon spells (Diane Alqhuist)

Witchery (Juliet Diaz)

The Occult Book

So far I liked sigil Witchery and The Complete Grimoire the most because I felt the information in those was presented in the most accessible and easy to understand way.

Moon spells was good but I’m not a large fan of new age-ery for my personal practice, but the preparing for spells section was sooo helpful! I loved all the correspondences and formations to help plan and thought it’s a very organised clear way to think about it! The suggestion of smudging wasn’t great though and the cultural appropriation of smudging is probably my only criticism.

Wasn’t a massive fan of Witchery! it was good but I thought it was very surface level personally!

I have also read in part;

Protection and Reversal Magick

Psychic Witch

Condensed Chaos

But to be very fr, I just haven’t had the attention span to finish them but they’re all great thus far 😭

these are just my opinions and I am a beginner so keep that in mind! posting these reviews is how I’m going to keep track of my practice as it progresses so hope y’all enjoyyyyy!

[pigeonflavouredcake]

My laptop is having a really hard time supporting my art tablet and drawing software also I miss Minecraft. When I test negative for the you know what I'm getting a pc.

I'm going to write my grimoire on my pink desk on a pink pc I'm jazzed

[welshwitchking]

A Collage of my Practice 🌙

I saw this trend going around on TikTok, mainly with Hellenic and a few Norse polytheists so I wanted to give it a go!

Until researching for my organised/tidy grimoire, I didn’t consider myself much of a polytheist at all. I liked working with the spirits of the land and the elements of nature but Welsh polytheism is as beautiful and as complex as the Greek pantheon. This has driven me to invest more time in the inspirational figures that led me here. The great magician Gwydion, a force of magical good spurs me on. Braint, the goddess of healing and light, who I’m closest to now as we transition into spring. Then, Taranis who much less is known about historically but I am aiming to get to know this god through experience instead.

If anyone else is a Welsh polytheist I would love to hear from you! Also anyone please feel free to drop a message I would love to discuss our practices ☺️

May the gods bless you on your way

~Cadno

[ofthecrowsandcranes]

thoughts of the week

i went into this intending to write a reflection on the grimoire challenge for this week but ended up thinking more about general reflections of my practice instead, so, thoughts:

like i said in this reblog, i'm using this challenge (and a bunch of other stuff) as frameworks, because i haven't really written down much of my practice. most of it lives in my head. i have (2) partial grimoires, one that's evolved into just a notetaking notebook and another that was digital that i don't really use because even though digitization makes it easier to organise, there's something about paper that i really, really like.

so my goal/intention for this challenge is to practice consistency. attempting the prompts that make sense to me, even if for some of them i know they're going to be a rough draft of what my practice ends up being. for the spellwriting 101 one, i haven't even done enough spellwork to know what process works best for me (consequences of being more pagan than witch for the past few years), so i took notes from @breelandwalker's how to write spells post since her process is concise and feels like a good checklist of "did i consider this aspect? am i being specific enough or not?" obviously my methods may change as i do more practical work but having a good starting point is what matters the most

one of my general goals for 2024 was to just Do things, and worry less about the finished product and more about the process. so some of my pages are messy and i don't have a specific order for things. i'm filling in the index/table of contents last so i can use it as a "where did i put this" list instead of a "this will go here" list. in the future, i'll probably use a binder or something with easily insertable pages/entries as a formal grimoire, but for now, i'm recording and practicing and that's what matters most for me, since i haven't done that before. despite four years of doing stuff on and off.

i'm gonna put a cut here because otherwise this post will be Massive but i'm gonna go into more detail about some of the pages/things that i did for reference.

monday

name your book: done! i just called it my spiritual lab notebook, since that's what it is.

definitions (ritual and spell): done! very UPG, but to me a ritual and a spell differ because a ritual is to affect the Now and a spell is to affect the Later. also rituals have more broad intentions vs a spell which has very specific intentions

Study herb: bay laurel! i did a bay leaf wish ritual on new year's day with my family and my mom asked why bay leaves, and i was like "hm, i don't know the specifics of why they're associated with wishmaking" so i added them to my herbs list so i could find out, and then learned it's because they're fucking bay laurel. i feel extremely stupid for not making that connection but! now i know!

tuesday:

outline: done! it's blank, i won't fill it in until the notebook is full

study gem: not done, still trying to decide how to substitute this. i might do tarot spreads instead.

spellwriting 101: done! discussed above

wednesday:

common tools: done! i really only put three things for now, but i'll probably go back and add things as i remember/find new tools. so far i've got tarot cards, embroidery thread, and candles, but in writing this i've remembered bells and jars and beads also

year outline/calendar: done! added the Big 4 (solstices & equinoxes), samhain, lughnasadh, and christmas (since my family celebrates it). will definitely be adding more as i go, but that's what i want to celebrate (or do celebrate) for now

Practical (tool usage): done! did a 3 card pull with my elemental power tarot, since i want to use it more as a reflective tool.

thursday:

altar design/workspace: done! sketched a layout of my current altar + wrote some wishes/dreams for when i have a different space.

practical (cleansing): not done yet—around this part of the week my chronic illness stuff started to flare up, and since cleansing involves actual cleaning for me, i couldn't really do it while resting. it's on my backburner for later.

friday:

personal practices: done! did a quick journal entry in DayOne

and that's all! if i can get to cleansing today i'll do it, but i have many other things to do also, so i'll get to it eventually.

[hex-ultra]

Explications Globales. 

Hex/Ultra est centré sur le monde de l'occulte (magie, esprits, créatures, menaces surnaturelles) dans une réalité sensiblement la même que la notre et qui suivra notre temporalité.

Il sera proposé d’incarner divers types de personnages occultes qui possèdent des capacités surnaturelles. Il y aura les sorcerers (des exorcistes à l’image de jujutsu kaisen) ; des thaumaturges (witch like) et des êtres rares avec certaines particularités spécifiques. Le forum proposera également diverses factions où placer son personnage.

Il sera ensuite à vous de fixer les objectifs de votre perso :

Affronter la nuée de Fléaux (des "mauvais esprits") qui ne cessent de se développer aux côtés de la Soul Society.

Percer différents secrets magiques, expérimenter et étudier au sein de  l’académie Luna Nova ou même en solitaire.

Devenir un mercenaire au sein d'une organisation criminelle surnaturelle.

Explorer des failles dimensionnelles et les monstres dont elles regorgent.

Planifier la domination du monde ou au contraire maintenir l'ordre au sein du Conseil.

Réveiller des menaces anciennes et oubliées au sein d’un culte

Mener une vie tranquille loin de tout ça et ainsi de suite...

Les possibilités seront nombreuses au sein de hex/ultra qui s'organisera en différents arcs narratifs guidés par les désirs de ses membres. L'ambiance se veut sombre avec des dangers multiples, forçant alliance ou trahison, égoïsme ou altruisme dans une vibe 100% surnaturelle avec tout de même quelques moments pour souffler ofc.

Fortement inspiré par des animés shonen (bleach, jjk principalement), il y aura toute une partie compétences/techniques, boutique de grimoires, d'armes et compagnie pour permettre l'évolution de son personnage à travers les évènements du forum.    

Le forum ouvrira sur un événement annuel qui met en compétition les jeunes éléments de la Soul Society et de Luna Nova.

[leleny]

Information about my OC, Ruby Beaumont:

NAME: Ruby Beaumont

STATUS: Alive

SPECIES: Human

GENDER: Female

AGE: 14 (Maigc knights entrance exam), 15 (star awards festival), 16 (spade invasion arc)

BIRTHDAY: May 14th

ZODIAC SIGN: Taurus

BLOOD TYPE: A

HEIGHT: 156 cm

EYES: Lilac

HAIR: Red

RELATIVES: George Beaumont (father), Bridget Beaumont (mother)

OCCUPATION: Magic knight

SQUAD: Crimson Lion

COUNTRY: Clover kingdom

LIKES: Music, jewelry, tea with biscuits

DISLIKES: Snobs (especially Ron)

HOBBY: Playing piano

MAGIC ATTRIBUTE: Gem magic

GRIMOIRE: Three leaf clover

BACKSTORY: Elaine's childhood best friend, she enjoys the typical things a noble girl would enjoy, but is much more hot headed and fierce than other nobles her age. She met Elaine when the Lou's hosted a party at their mansion, she found her hiding behind a big flowerpot, she sat near her and began interrogating her with questions like "who are you?" and "what are you doing?", Elaine felt overwhelmed by her many questions and ran away. Since then Ruby as been continuously asking her parents about the "Lou's youngest child", they organised a tea party and invited Elaine. Elaine was wary a first but Ruby's warm personality soon found the way to her heart, and since then they have been inseparable.