#witches

[witchesversuspatriarchy]

Hope this fits.

[theevenusianwitch]

a gentle reminder:

eat something. take your medicine. you are not a burden to others. your emotions are just as real as theirs and deserve to be listened to. relax your jaw and shoulders. it’s okay to take a break sometimes you deserve rest. it’s okay to be yourself. you’re not hard to love and anyone who opposes that does not deserve your time. you’re going to be okay.

[whimsigothwitch]

Whimsical accessoires

[sugerconditioner]

"Amber is the colour of your energy.” ︴━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

[pratchettquotes]

Being a witch meant going into places you didn't want to go.

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

[xsoftsoul]

Nights like this 🖤

[satanandsoul]

The best version of you?

<<Pile 1>>

Your cards: 8 of Pentacles, The Hanged Man, The Sun

At your best, you know how to balance between work and leisure. You work hard and you play hard. When it is time to work, you put 100% effort and attention into it. When it is time for leisure, your heart and mind won't be occupied by work or other serious things. You are the happiest at this state. In fact, this is how you will function when you unleash all your potential.

<<Pile 2>>

Your cards: 3 of Swords, 6 of Swords, 2 of Swords Rx

All the swords!!! At your best, you will be able to make a sharp and quick decision to leave situations that only gives you heartbreaks. There will still be heartbreaks in your life even though you are being the best version of yourself. But you will be wise enough to know when is the best time to detach and walk away to minimise the damage. This is a sign of maturity. Therefore, at your best, I can see you being very wise and emotionally mature.

<<Pile 3>>

Your cards: 9 of Wands, 3 of Pentacles, 4 of Wands

Group work may not be the easiest thing in the world. I totally understand it. You probably dread it too. But let me tell you, at your best, you are a great team player. You have great potential for that. In fact, you may find your soul tribe while working with others. You have the potential to turn teamwork into something pleasurable. All you need to do is to hone your social skills and you will be good.

[hiveworks]

The fates are weaving their yarn, destiny is already decided. And there's nothing the young witch Theodore Ashdown can do about it!! Until he meets Oliver. Uncover the forgotten past and the unwritten future-- read IN BLOOD WE RISE today!

In Blood We Rise by @captainmera

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Sydney Omarr - 1976 Weekly Astrological Guide for AQUARIUS - Signet - 1976 (cover art by Bart Forbes)

[banebite]

Beginner to Intermediate

The biggest hurdle from moving from being a beginner practitioner to an intermediate and advanced practitioner is experience. You can't stay paddling around in the kitty pool forever, eventually you'll have to swim in the ocean. Here are some quick Do's and Dont's for moving forward:

Do: Continued Research

No matter how long you have been on your path, there will always be more to learn. Don't for a minute think that you know all there is to know about any subject. Even when you teach (this is something I had to learn, got a little too arrogant for a while).

Don't: Plan Overly Elaborate Spells for Your First Few Times

This shouldn't have to be said, but as someone who did this exact thing I can tell you it will feel very disappointing. You'll be so focused on moon signs, planetary alignments, and the direction you're facing that the core purpose of the spell will take a back seat to the preparation.

Do: Learn to Get Into "The Zone"

In order to do any sort of working you should ideally be in a good headspace. A messy mind can make for a messy spell (This can make magick especially challenging for Neuro-divergent individuals). Come up with some pre-ritual practices like soothing baths, music, entheogens, brief meditation, etc. Anything that gets you in the right mindset for workings.

Don't: Burn Yourself Out

Spellwork is fun and at times it can make you feel invigorated. But doing multiple rituals and spells during the week can muddle their energy and drain yours. Devote some time for allowing a working to simply do its job for a while before doing another one.

Do: Week Long Workings

This sounds like it contradicts the previous statement but hear me out. Leaving a working on your altar with a candle or other active element that is continuously re-lit each day or charged respectively can make for a stronger spell without the need for more complicated work.

Don't: Expect Immediate Results

Spells are rarely instantaneous. Give it time to do its job before writing it off as a failure.

Do: Experiment

Change when you do rituals, what tools you use, and the methods you employ. While consistency may be key, stagnation is the enemy. Record whatever you try and see how it works out.

Don't: Over-Use Pre-Made Spells

It's nice having pre-made spells widely available online and in books but they aren't always ideal. They may call for ingredients you don't really have or use, or maybe utilizes techniques you're not familiar with. Tweaking them is absolutely an option but making your own rituals is ideal.

Do: Personal Experience

In your practice, your personal experience matters most. Whether you are a practitioner who believes their experiences are a result of the placebo effect or actual changes made to reality doesn't matter.

Don't: Over-Burden Your Practice

If you're not into astrology, don't use astrology. Not into crystals? Don't buy crystals. Try things out, if they don't work out or feel like a chore, throw it out. Your practice can be as simple or complex as you like but it should never feel overwhelming.

Do: Spontaneous Ritual

If you have the time and inspiration has struck, take advantage of it. If you feel like having an eleven p.m. dancing ritual in honor of Dionysus, then break out the wine and have a go.

This is a small list of some hopefully useful ideas for advancing your practice.

[freckledfortuneteller]

Things you can do on the first of the month - along with or instead of blowing cinnamon through your door

An extremely popular practice right now is to blow cinnamon through your door on the first of the month. It’s popular for good reason, as doing this can bring in prosperity for the new month.

However if you cant partake in this practice due to pets, allergies or any other reason - or simply would like to change/add more to your first of the month ritual, I’d like to offer some ideas!

First let’s talk about the significance of the first of the month and blowing an herb into the home. The first day of a month is a starting point. You can set the tone for how the rest of the month will unfold energetically. One is the number of beginnings and potential! Do not worry if you miss it or simply don’t feel up to it on the first you can of course still do the same practices any day of the month.

The act of blowing the cinnamon into your home is to symbolize that energy flowing into your household. This can be achieved through different means and different herbs all based on preference.

Want to change it up? - Alternative actions:

Cinnamon in your coffee

Put or refresh prosperous herbs & crystals in your wallet

Herbs & crystals in the mail box

Burning bay leaves

Prosperity front door wash (don’t forget the doorknobs!)

Cinnamon sticks in / on the mailbox

Burning a green or yellow candle

A small luck or prosperity ritual/working

Drinking mint tea

Sweeping! (Clear out that old stagnant energy!)

Prosperity herb scented hand / body soap

Make / feed / refresh money bowl

Blowing cinnamon in a house would be activating it using the air element - try a different element (burning, burying or putting in water)

Can’t use cinnamon? - Some other plants for prosperity:

Mint

Allspice

Bay leaves

Black tea

Catnip

Cilantro

Clover

Ginger

Moonwort

Oats

Oregano

Parsley

Peppermint

I hope this takes some pressure off and gives you new ideas!

[booksandwitchery]

Revering Nature

Throughout my search for science-based pagan books to help me on this path of mine, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer kept popping up--so I finally read it.

I would recommend it to most people, especially those who feel a special connection to the natural world but don't exactly know why. I can see this book offending a lot of people on the right side of the political spectrum, but if you fall into that category I'm betting you found this blog in an accidental or ironic sense anyway.

Ultimately this book is all about reverence for the natural world and the importance of maintaining a spirit of respect, reciprocity and responsibility for the gifts given to us by nature. It makes a strong case for maintaining balance, which is a) weaved throughout pagan religions, b) arguably foundational to them all, and thus c) deeply relevant to my studies. Kimmerer also explains the importance of ritual and ceremony to human beings, regardless of our beliefs (or lack thereof.)

Bits of wisdom I marked down from this important book (just in case this isn't clear, everything inside quotation marks is taken directly from the book) separated by theme:

I. Exploitation of Natural Resources

Kimmerer disapproves of the belief that the natural world is human property to be produced and sold: "The commodification of the natural world is just a popular story told by humans. Strawberries belong to themselves."

II. Indigenous Wisdom & Animism

Thirty percent of English words are verbs, but in many indigenous American tribes this proportion is as much as seventy percent (as with the Potawatomi tribe). The language does not divide between masculine and feminine, but rather between animate and non-animate. We can learn from Potawatomi and other indigenous "ways of knowing" because even their very language acts as "a mirror for seeing the animacy of the world," and honors the universe as "a communion of subjects."

III. The Power of Balance

The author stresses the need to maintain balance with nature and life in general: "Balance is not a passive resting place--it takes work, balancing the giving and taking, the raking out and the putting in." Kimmerer suggests that we should temper our desires with self-discipline, which "builds resistance against the insidious germ of taking too much."

IV. Capitalism and the Death of Contentment

Kimmerer comments on consumer society's tendency to see contentment as a "radicalist proposition" and capitalism's dependence on the creation of unmet desires. This reminded me of The Door to Witchcraft by Tonya Brown, when she writes that we should try our best to have an abundance mentality rather than one of scarcity. We should take from nature only what we need, and give back whenever we can.

V. Importance of Ritual and Ceremony

Kimmerer beautifully explains humans' innate need for ritual and ceremony: "Ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention. . .ceremonies transcend the boundaries of the individual and resonate beyond the human realm. These acts of reverence are powerfully pragmatic." This is deeply reminiscent of my post last year on the psychological benefits of ritual ceremony. This affirmed my belief of why these behaviors are ubiquitous despite all varying forms of thought and belief.

VII. Pessimism in the Environmentalist Community

Regarding the fatalist attitude that has crept into many environmentalist conversations: "Environmentalism becomes synonymous with dire predictions and powerless feelings. Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth."

[witchboychan]

https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Magic-and-Enter-the-Occult#tips (this is the article i m ranting about, also this post is a messy mixture of tips]

Witch Tip 101

CHECK YOUR SOURCES. ALWAYS. EVERY TIME.

Use critical thinking please.

I accidentally stumbled into this article, and holy citrine is it bad.

[Section 2?] No, you are NOT going to be in control of these "magical forces". If you summon a demon you are NOT going to control that thing likes its a pony.

[Section 2] Now the articles telling people to research closed practices.

This article jumps right into planning a spell before, oh, i don t know, BASIC PROTECTION???

Also rituals aren t a good place for beginners to start. Especially before they know what warding is, or casting a circle.

[Section 6] you don t need much fancy junk to be a witch. And either way, correspondences do exist. Assuming we WERE throwing a baby witch into a ritual can we at least teach them basic color correspondences first? Or at least give them our notes?

[Section 7 image] Just in case you can t see it, theres a person pouring something on a symbol painted on the ground. Tentacle in the center. 3 depressed candles around the "circle". Also, a small silver platter with a nice drop of blood on it. Blood magick. Something EXTREMELY powerful, getting recommended to baby witches. In some cases, these people are edgy teenagers no older than 13 doing rituals to hex their ex boyfriend they will forget next week. Come on.

[Section 9] you don t have to devout an hour a day to witchcraft just because some hermit devouted their entire lives. Some people are busy you know.

Overall, its mediocre at BEST. Theres some really basic information in there but thats all. Like simple stuff like this is a book of shadows. Even calling it a book of shadows makes me cringe slightly.

So please, check your sources. Check your authors, your social media peoples, your blogs, and for the love of amethyst don t trust tik tok.

[whimsigothwitch]

Sunny day at the witches cottage

[elf-666]

If god leaves you.. Satan finds you! ! 🖤❤️

[hekateshpriestess]

What is real even