#i need to read the new world witchery book tbh

[samwisethewitch]

green-earth-witch replied to your post:

I'm moving from Washington to Alabama in a couple months and I'm really hoping to learn about the Southern folk practices, and maybe incorporate some parts of it into my own. Do you have any recommendations on how to go about doing that? Or are a lot of practices kept within families?

Not South-specific, but I love Satan in America by W. Scott Poole for American devil lore. A lot of Southern folklore does involve the Devil, and this book addresses that.

I'm not gonna lie, a lot of this stuff is oral tradition, which means that only way to learn it is to be told about it by someone else. A lot of it is background knowledge that you just kind of absorb from growing up here, and I'm not sure how an outsider would go about getting that kind of immersion.

Southern Cunning by Aaron Oberon has some good stuff in it, but Oberon's system is more structured than a lot of other Southern folk magic and if I remember correctly is entirely based on one collection of folk tales? He's also from Florida, which is culturally very different from the rest of the Southeast. While it may not be super helpful for learning about Alabama traditions, it's a good example of how you can build a complete practice based on folklore.

A lot of people really love Backwoods Witchcraft by Jake Richards, and I actually own a copy, but I've never gotten around to finishing it so I can't give my complete thoughts. What I have read is similar to what I've heard from people around me, but that's probably because Richards and I both live in Southern Appalachia. That may or may not be relevant to you depending on which part of Alabama you're moving to -- even within one state, mountain people and valley people have very different traditions.

Sticks, Stones, Root & Bones by Stephanie Rose Bird is about hoodoo, which is African-American folk magic. However, Bird's practice is actually the closest to my own brand of folk magic of any book I've read, probably because there's a lot of overlap between hoodoo and Southern folk magic. Bird also incorporates elements of African Traditional Religions, but a lot of the theory and practice of magic is the same across both traditions.

The New World Witchery podcast is an excellent resource for American folk magic in general, and they have some episodes that are Southern-specific. One of the hosts recently published a book, also called New World Witchery, but I haven't read it and have no idea if it contains info on Southern folk magic.

Those are the only resources I personally feel comfortable recommending. I'm sure there are other good ones out there, but I've encountered A LOT of bad resources for American folk magic. Here's some red flags to avoid:

"Hoodoo" is specifically African-American folk magic. It is NOT an umbrella term for all American folk magic, which is a popular misconception for some reason. A book that says so is not a good resource.

The South is not a unified culture, and Southern folk magic is not a unified tradition. Folk magic in Alabama will be very different from Tennessee or Louisiana. Authors who have done their research will acknowledge this and will clarify which region they're talking about.

Southern folk magic (and American folk magic more generally) is very different from Wiccan-style magic. There's no circle casting, no calling quarters, and no God/Goddess or divine masculine/divine feminine. I've come across some resources that are essentially Wicca with some Southern folk elements sprinkled in for flavor, but are claiming to be authentic Southern magic. Don't read those.

Likewise, there's little to no overlap between folk magic and New Age beliefs. No Southern tradition I'm familiar with uses crystals, meditation, or chakras.

(There's nothing wrong with mixing traditions. I do that in my own practice. But authors should be honest about which traditions they're pulling from.)

Southern folk magic is very, very Christian. It is possible to practice without using Christian elements (I do), but doing so is not traditional. An honest attempt to teach these traditions as they were historically practiced will include Christian elements like Psalms, holy water, and sometimes saints. A resource that doesn't include those elements probably isn't reliable.

This is all good for general knowledge about folk magic in the Southern US, but if you really want to connect to folk magic in YOUR area, you'll need to do some legwork.

Learn about your local folklore and urban legends. What creepy ghost stories do people tell in your area? How can you incorporate that into a magical practice?

Get familiar with the plants in your backyard. Learn about their culinary, medicinal, and magical uses. See how that aligns with the local lore.

And most importantly, talk to people! Especially people who grew up there!

[kaislabratory]

I really love to read, it expands my mind and brings me new opinions. Speaking of new opinions and perspectives, I really love legendborn!! The two books out rn are very well in line to be the best books i’ve ever read. The writing was great, and the main character,Bree, being black and from the south all whilst being a woman was just so relatable. Since i love seeing other peoples opinions here are some of mine. SPOILERS FOR #legendborn and #bloodmarked

-Legendborn did not have too much romance, in fact, it barely had any really. I think that people confuse genuine connections and emotions for people as them being madly in love. It had his lovely moments, but just enough to where it didn’t make either of the characters involved. It just added another element to the story and showed us new sides of the character.

-I am not team nick or team sel. If i had to choose though, i’d lean more toward Sel. To me, nick just doesn’t understand Bree as deeply as she needs to be understood. Nick is a conventionally attractive white,cis,rich man. He relates to bree only in the topic of arthur, and simply doesn’t understand bree’s anger sometimes. Selwyn doesn’t understand really really deeply either, but she can identify with him more. He is discriminated against and threatened by the order. Constantly being reminded that he is only there because his higher ups allow him to be, and the sins of his mother weigh on his back. He and bree relate on a level of family, of being unwanted and unliked anyone else around you. They clash and fight so badly because to me, they know eachother so deeply.

-I wouldn’t so much mind it if bree didn’t get with either one of them and stayed with alice,mariah,patricia, and other rootcrafters. She would probably work towards bettering herself and expanding her already vast knowledge. I love the depth of her relationship with the women around her.

-NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE TALK ABOUT FELICITY AND RUSSS!! I was genuinely so sad for felicity at the beginning of bloodmarked and towards the end of legendborn. I was crying soo hard, and i loved how she and bree had a talk about grief. Bree explained how she genuinely couldn’t relate to how felicity was feeling about russ, but she knew some of the symptoms and still helped her out.

-People who shit on bree for leaving with the Erebus but don’t shit on Nick for disappearing on Sel and Bree baffle me tbh.

-Polyamory between nick,bree, and sel, just seems out of character. I feel like a lot of people forget that polyamory is a THREE WAY street and not two people that like a girl at the same time and the girl just can’t choose. Nick and Sel have a connection that runs very deep, but the both of them have stated that it’s strictly platonic. Especially Sel, who has gone through the process of loving Nick. Polyamory between the three just doesn’t seem right to me but to each their own ig.

-I REALLY WAS SHOCKED WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT EREBUS WAS THE SHADOWKING I WONT LIE.

- The plot of legenborn and bloodmarked is so good in general. I really loved the world building and the dedication tracy put into the story. It’s godly really.

That’s all i can really think of for right now!! My next reads are gonna be the cruel prince & the witchery.

I’m currently reading children of blood and bone and it’s SO GOOD.

[erascrhead]

November Ice Breaker Tag Game

loI was tagged by the lovely @bnhastanning! I’m sorry this took so long - I’ve been procrastinating all of my work and i had to take care of it before did this but now? watashi ga kita motherbuckets.

November Ice Breaker

1 - What was the last thing you were really excited about? 

Not gonna lie, things are a bit bleak at the moment, but I suppose I was very happy because I did really well on my last lesson test in my Japanese class and I raised my cumulative grade by a whole percentage! I am not very good at it but if I do decently for the rest of term I think I can make my way up to an A-, which would be really cool!

2 - What do you wish someone taught you long ago? 

Don’t be so singularly focused on your goals and responsibilities that everything else is removed from your life. Most of my middle and high school career, I was focused only on achieving what I needed academically and extracurricularly, and pushing myself beyond what I really could handle, that I ended up overworked and lonely. If it puts it into perspective, in my 10th grade year, I not only had multiple people ask me if I had taken a semester away because I had spent so much time hiding in the library, but I literally gave myself an ulcer from stress and taking on other people’s responsibilities because I had painted myself into a position where I was never allowed to refuse. While I did get to achieve beyond what I ever could have dreamed of (and I’m really proud of myself for that), theres a lot of my adolescence that I have a sort of phantom nostalgia for, and that’s something I really regret. 

Your life needs to have balance to it. Make sure you find that early on, and understand how to equally prioritize your own well being with what you want and what other’s want from you.

3 - What are some of your guilty pleasures? 

Not doing the reading for class lmao. As someone who never once skipped the reading until I graduated HS, skipping some of the reading in college, when I end up having around cumulative 500 pages per week is quite nice. I wish I had something less goody-two-shoes but I do nothing and also have zero (0) shame.

4 - What topic could you give a twenty minute presentation on without any preparation? 

There’s a couple of different things I could talk about in differing qualities ranging from classical ballet scores to a linguistic breakdown of a hamilton song, and of course I could go off about bnha for a long time, but I’m gonna go with a fun one.

My most fun answer is that I could talk about racism and race correction in Harry Potter for like three hours. Black Hermione is god tier fanon, and JKR’s attempts to race correct her make me really frustrated, not only with the problems with the action itself, but as well with the nonchalance she attempted to do it with. I have a bit of a ‘cheat’ on this one, because last year I wrote a ~5000 word academic research paper on the subject. I was already really passionate about it before that though (that’s why I wrote it in the first place); the only difference now is I can spit out narrative and numerical facts™ off the cuff, and my argument would be better organized.  

5 - What scene in a movie or tv show gives you goosebumps every time you watch it? 

I don’t really have an answer for this, which is kind of sad but also hilarious considering what my parent’s jobs are. If I had to pick something, I don’t really have a scene in particular, but the movie Amadeus (the extended directors cut edition) is one of my favorites that leaves me breathless in the best of ways. 

6 - What were some of your favorite holiday traditions growing up? 

One of my favorites is that every year since I was little, my mother and I would pick out either 1-3 new ornaments for our tree. I remember being little and walking into the Macy’s Christmas section and just being dazzled by the lights, and typically, we would pick out some white and gold porcelain birds. As I got older, are choices started coming from more small time shops, like a kiosk in hawaii or a small knick-knack shop near the place where we occasionally ski in the winter. For me, it’s really the act of going and picking out something beautiful with her that’s really nice.

A newer tradition is that every year I bake chocolate-chip bread pudding in a dutch oven. I am, unequivocally, the best baker in the family both immediate and extended, though not the best chef, and this became a hit around the time I was 15. It’s just really fun to make -- I like to belt out to Christmas songs while I bake. 

7 - What book had the most significant impact on you? 

HARD QUESTION. There’s a bunch of different ways I could answer this: the impact on the way I think, the first chapter book I read on my own that helped me discover my love of reading, my favorite example of intricate world building? I have a lot I could say. The direction I’m going to go for is the impact on my writing, and the one of the first books that really made me marvel at the beauty of words, just as they are. My two runners up are The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson, but my final answer is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

Representation aspects aside (but also, yes!), this book was one of the first books that made me feel emotion for the words themselves. It’s more of a character study than it is plot driven, and as a kid who grew up loving action adventure fantasy novels, I think that’s one of the reasons it really stood out to me. I pulled an excerpt, just to give the gist:

I stared at the reproduced mural in the book -- but I was more interested in his finger as he tapped the book with approval. That finger had pulled a trigger in a war. That finger had touched my mother in tender ways I did not fully comprehend. I wanted to talk, to say something, to ask questions. But I couldn’t. All the words were stuck in my throat. So I just nodded.

One of my favorite things now is to play with words, to roll them around on my tongue and isolate their melodies, placing them in them in rhythm to a beat only I can hear, and I think that this was the first book that showed me how to do that.

8 - What weird thing do you have nostalgia for? 

So I went to a small school for all the way up until college; about 45 kids in my sixth grade class, 22ish in my homeroom/main class. There were four kids, including me, that had an aptitude for math, and understood the lessons without being taught them, and so what my teacher would do is give us the homework packet for the week and send us out to the outdoor benches next to our classroom to complete it during the period. We, being 11, would goof around Monday through Thursday and do the entire packet in the Friday period and then turn it in. Not the best teaching decision (i wish i had been taught the next year’s material tbh) but that’s not the point.

It was just a year, but those periods felt so untouchable and surreal and innocent. I remember, the school was so quiet, and it was just us, and we were just kids who were getting away with not learning math for a whole year, and it felt like the greatest victory in the world. 

9 - What's a problem you have, that might be entirely unique to you? 

I don’t know how unique it is, but the intensity with which I currently need to pet a dog is unparalleled.

10 - What are two of your favorite snacks? 

I literally eat an apple with peanut butter on a daily basis I cannot emphasize this enough i am, a slut, for peanut butter. 

There’s also this specific Costco Brand trail mix that I literally have eaten so much of that I got nauseous. We love Kirkland Signature™ up in this house.

That’s all! I’m tagging @kicheetah @teamstevesass @stark-tony @bakugox @rabbitproduce @pixie-witchery @joeytrlbiani @queenangst THOUGH NO PRESSURE and also anyone else who wants to! Have fun!!

[someoneunexpected]

Apple Tree

A few days ago I got Juliet Diaz’s Witchery and Plant Witchery books gifted and I like them a lot so far. As a beginner I find them very exciting. As well are they a great introduction and the explanations make sense. It feels safe and clear getting guided trough this new world step by step.

The rituals look intriguing and I can’t wait to get started. At the same time I won’t rush for it, want to read about every information and material and take my time until I feel ready. And as in the books described, I plan on doing the manfiestation spells to bond with the single books and make them connect with me first. 🖤

And I like plants. Recently I noticed more and more I like having them around and I would like to have some in the room as well. Although I am probably not the best with plants. <.  .> I usually overwater them or not enough. So far I can keep moss alive! And tbh. Moss is pretty! It makes me very happy.

As a next step I decided to try and plant an apple tree from a seed. It will take A LOT of time which I am aware of. Afterall it is a tree. The seed also needs some preparation before getting actually planted. On the other hand, if I do not start now, it will just take longer and longer. Maybe I will also need multiple tries until I figure out what works best and to get one growing. Still I think it suits for a good start and my growth.  🖤

06.01.22