thewideopenwitch

[thewideopenwitch]

So, I sent that newsletter out to the ALTARCRATE™ Waitlist, including one to myself. Mine went to my spam folder 🤦‍♀️ SO, if you signed up and haven't gotten yours.....

[thewideopenwitch]

Welcome to our brand new "Write Your Craft" 30-Day Challenge! #30DAYSOFDIVINATION This month it's all about divination, what it is? and 28 different ways to use it! 

[thewideopenwitch]

“You are the first person I ever showed my heart to and you are the reason no one will ever see it again.”

— atelophobiaxx // Nada Toghoj

[thewideopenwitch]

I've got all my connections up on Pinterest! Do you follow everything? As I grow, each platform will have specials! Don't miss out!

[thewideopenwitch]

DEF!

Tip for new witches:

Stop asking other witches and magic practitioners what you should believe; instead research, read, gather information, form your own beliefs. Ask other practitioners what they believe sure, but stop asking them what you should believe.

[thewideopenwitch]

30 Days of Witchcraft ~ Day 14 Crystals

I haven't kept up with sharing but we're on Day 14 over at the blog! Here's a new graphic to follow me and play along!

[thewideopenwitch]

Reblog if it's okay to befriend you, ask questions, ask for advice, rant, vent, let something off your chest, or just have a nice chat.

please, please and please.

[thewideopenwitch]

30 Days of Witchcraft ~30-Day Challenge~Day 1

Merry meet, and welcome to my first 30-day challenge! I'm excited to talk "30 Days of Witchcraft" with you! To read more about why I'm doing my own 30-Day challenge, go to my "Write Your Craft" page. 

While Samhain starts the pagan "New Year, I'm started with Lughnasadh/Lammas because it was August 1, Monday and I wanted to get a little ahead of it so that we could all celebrate in our own ways. 

First things first, Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-NAS-ah) has been spelled about 5 different ways in my research. Pick the spelling you can remember LOL! Lughnasadh is also the Celtic version of this Sabbat and can be used interchangeably with Lammas. 

Lughnasadh/Lammas occurs on August 1st, the midpoint between the summer solstice (Litha) and fall equinox (Mabon). As a midpoint, its date doesn't change yearly, whereas 4 of the sabbats do to match the solstices and equinoxes.

This holiday celebrates the fall harvest that fed our ancestors through the year. It was a celebration of the fruits of their labors.  If crops were harvested before Lughnasadh, it meant that the previous harvest ran out before the year was up. It meant that the previous year's crops were scant, and that could mean a vicious cycle of running out of food too early in the year. 

The Lammas Fest was savored with gratitude and village sharing of the crops. Some ancient pagan cultures held sacrifice: some a horse - to Freyr, some a bull or their king (sometimes in effigy - sometimes not), to their Sun God, some cornhusk dolls made in effigy of each member sacrificed into the fire for their Harvest God. Many broke bread together made with the first grains harvested that year. 

The Celts also honored Lugh (Irish), or Llew (Welsh), the God of skills and craftsmanship; the Many-skilled God, as he was self-proclaimed to be able to do it all!!! It is lost in lore as to the specific reason the Celts honored Lugh on this Sabbat. Some say it was a wedding fest he held for his new bride, some say it was a feast he held in honor of his stepmother who died of exhaustion after clearing a wooded area for crops.

Whatever the reason, it is  Lugh (Irish), or Llew (Welsh), the God of skills and craftsmanship; the Many-skilled God, as he was self-proclaimed to be able to do it all!!! It is lost in lore as to the specific reason the Celts honored Lugh on this Sabbat. Some say it was a wedding fest he held for his new bride, some say it was a feast he held in honor of his stepmother who died of exhaustion after clearing a wooded area for crops.

Whatever the reason, it is a time to celebrate the fruits of the season, as well as your skills as a person. Think hard about what skills you have. What are your talents? What do you excel at? Think of all the things you can do, all the things you want to do, and all the ways you want to grow in your skills. Forget your modesty for this one day, and proclaim your skills as Lugh did!

Correspondences for this sabbat:

Deities (across all pantheons)

Lugh

Tailtiu

The Green Man

The Grain Mothers

Gaia

Ceres

Demeter

Persephone

Luna

Selene

Colors

Bronze

Brown

Yellow

Gold

Orange

Stones

Botswana Agate

Jasper

Moonstone

Citrine

Carnelian

Moss Agate

Peridot

Aventurine

Herbs, Plants, & Spices

Wheat and other grains

Onion

Caraway

Basil

Rosemary

Yarrow

Vervain

Caraway

Wheat

Roses

Calendula

Sunflowers

Ash Tree

Apples

Pears

Blackberries

Honey

Food and Drink

Bread

Corn

Potatoes

Apples

Pears

Beer

Mead

Animals

Bees

Bats

Horses

Cattle

Bears

Ravens

Snakes

Deer

Salmon

Spells

Self-Reflection

Prosperity

Transformation

Ways to Celebrate this Sabbat

Decorate your altar with things related to your skill. 

Light a grain-colored candle for Lugh: brown, yellow gold, bronze

Harvest your own garden and share it with your "village"

Make bread of all kinds to share with your family and friends.

Host a canned food drive or donate canned goods to your local food pantry.

Make corn husk dolls (no sacrifice necessary!)

But you can!

Renew your home protection spells.

Have a Lammas ritual of self-reflection by meditating on the blessings in your life and the sacrifices you need to make to better your life.

Historically, I've ended this ritual by sipping a local fall wine and eating a slice of the bread my family made, alternating a bite and a drink until gone.

[thewideopenwitch]

30 Days of Witchcraft ~ 30-Day Challenge ~ Day 3

It is Day 3 of our "30 Days of Witchcraft'' Write Your Craft 30-Day Challenge! I hope you’re enjoying it so far! 

Today is about our Grimoires or Book of Shadows, but first, let me wish you a blessed Lughnasadh with these FREE Lughnasadh printables in my shop. They were created with love and blessing based on my previous Lughnasadh post and will be free for August. I hope they are a good addition to your Grimoire. Click the image to get your FREE download! or go to: https://payhip.com/b/qSELt

So Grimoire? Book of Shadows? What are they and what is the difference?

Simply put, a Grimoire is a book that usually holds a witch's spells and the information needed for those spells. So these pages, for instance, would have the Lughnasadh spells, as well as a list of correspondences for the season that you can research to create your own spells or rituals. Meanwhile, a Book of Shadows is a record of a witch's magical works, dreams, their learning path, and other private things ~ a magical diary of sorts.

Both can be hard copies or stored online (I have both, both ways). You can keep just one and store everything in it. It can be a hardcover (I use this one and photo corners to add in things. Rae (the kiddo) has this one, so they can draw on the cover.), a notebook, a binder full of printables, or whatever else you want to put in it. This blog is part of my Book of Shadows, the part I choose to share with the world. I've shared some of myself, I've shared my research, and I've even shared my anger sometimes. There are printed books from other witches and I've recently seen a sort of fill-in-the-blank Grimoire! Author Amy Cesari has an entire line of "Coloring Book of Shadows". It was a great starter tool for my daughter when she wanted to start homeschooling Paganism in 9th grade. Here in our  3rd year, I'm just printing her fun blank journal pages and letting her create her own, and she is my final checkpoint for the printables in my shop!

So as you can see, no matter how you do it, you have SO MANY options!! Even though I am creating my own, I still get sucked into the rabbit hole of ways to create them. If you are a bookbinder or know one.. well, you probably already have one if that's the case LOL!

[thewideopenwitch]

30 Days of Witchcraft ~30-Day Challenge~Day 2

Merry meet, and welcome to my first 30-day challenge! I'm excited to talk "30 Days of Witchcraft" with you! To read more about why I'm doing my own 30-Day challenge, go to my "Write Your Craft" page. 

For Day 2, I'm going to talk about a witch's tool kit.

The first things you HAVE TO HAVE are:

1. You 2. That's it!

Anyone who tells you that you have to have all these things are wrong. Anything else is extra tools. Things you use to carry out a purpose. But you can just do it yourself by speaking to your universe and asking for "the thing".

Simple for baby witches and witches in the broom closet. You need no outward tools. Much the same as Christians praying you can do the same thing to your universe. It can be to the Christian God, or any God or Goddess from any pantheon, or literally just to THE UNIVERSE - whatever your beliefs are. Use them. Remember: You do not need a deity (God/Goddess) to practice witchcraft. You can be a Christian witch. Wicca is a religion., so just as not all Christians are witches, neither are all Wiccans witches, nor all witches Wiccan.

Other Tools of the Trade

The important thing is to use whatever fits your budget and needs. I started fleshing out my personal tool kit in my 30s and 40s! For a long time, I had a simple paper printout (below) to represent the things I did not have, for visual purposes when I was trying to envision something.

Here are some basic tools and what they represent. There will be more later as our 30-day challenge progresses!

Paten or Altar Plate

a flat plate-like surface 

symbolic of the element of earth

usually carved with a symbol, often the pentagram

used to bless or charge items

often fireproof to act as a trivet for objects that use flame

Athame

a knife, doesn't have to be sharp

symbolically represents the element of fire

it can be inscribed

used to direct energies for ritual purposes

is usually only used for spell work, and not for everyday tasks

Wand

yes, that kind of wand

symbolically represents air

can be made from any material or a combination of materials

as the athame, it is for directing energies that aren't drawn to an athame/knife.

Chalice

also known as a goblet

is symbolic of the element of water

Can actually hold water on your altar

similar to the Christian "Holy Grail" it is symbolic of the Goddess's womb in many traditions.

[thewideopenwitch]

I’ve been trying to find a way to practice my craft more often since I’ve returned along the beam, but as I travel frequently, it is a little difficult. So, I decided to develop myself with some 30 Day challenges! I tried a "Roots of your Craft 30-Day Challenge" but found it to be too basic as I'm well past the stage of "How do you think this will change your views?" 

Merry meet, and welcome to my first 30-day challenge! I'm excited to talk "30 Days of Witchcraft" with you! To read more about why I'm doing my own 30-Day challenge, go to my "Write Your Craft" page. 

While Samhain starts the pagan "New Year, I'm starting with Lughnasadh/Lammas because it is August 1, Monday and I want to get a little ahead of it so that we can all celebrate in our own ways. 

First things first, Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-NAS-ah) has been spelled about 5 different ways in my research. Pick the spelling you can remember LOL! Lughnasadh is also the Celtic version of this Sabbat and can be used interchangeably with Lammas. 

Lughnasadh/Lammas occurs on August 1st, the midpoint between the summer solstice (Litha) and fall equinox (Mabon). As a midpoint, its date doesn't change yearly, whereas 4 of the sabbats do to match the solstices and equinoxes.

This holiday celebrates the fall harvest that fed our ancestors through the year. It was a celebration of the fruits of their labors.  If crops were harvested before Lughnasadh, it meant that the previous harvest ran out before the year was up. It meant that the previous year's crops were scant, and that could mean a vicious cycle of running out of food too early in the year. 

The Lammas Fest was savored with gratitude and village sharing of the crops. Some ancient pagan cultures held sacrifice: some a horse - to Freyr, some a bull or their king (sometimes in effigy - sometimes not), to their Sun God, some cornhusk dolls made in effigy of each member sacrificed into the fire for their Harvest God. Many broke bread together made with the first grains harvested that year. 

The Celts also honored Lugh (Irish), or Llew (Welsh), the God of skills and craftsmanship; the Many-skilled God, as he was self-proclaimed to be able to do it all!!! It is lost in lore as to the specific reason the Celts honored Lugh on this Sabbat. Some say it was a wedding fest he held for his new bride, some say it was a feast he held in honor of his stepmother who died of exhaustion after clearing a wooded area for crops.

Whatever the reason, it is  Lugh (Irish), or Llew (Welsh), the God of skills and craftsmanship; the Many-skilled God, as he was self-proclaimed to be able to do it all!!! It is lost in lore as to the specific reason the Celts honored Lugh on this Sabbat. Some say it was a wedding fest he held for his new bride, some say it was a feast he held in honor of his stepmother who died of exhaustion after clearing a wooded area for crops.

Whatever the reason, it is a time to celebrate the fruits of the season, as well as your skills as a person. Think hard about what skills you have. What are your talents? What do you excel at? Think of all the things you can do, all the things you want to do, and all the ways you want to grow in your skills. Forget your modesty for this one day, and proclaim your skills as Lugh did!

Correspondences for this sabbat:

Deities (across all pantheons)

Lugh

Tailtiu

The Green Man

The Grain Mothers

Gaia

Ceres

Demeter

Persephone

Luna

Selene

Colors

Bronze

Brown

Yellow

Gold

Orange

Stones

Botswana Agate

Jasper

Moonstone

Citrine

Carnelian

Moss Agate

Peridot

Aventurine

Herbs, Plants, & Spices

Wheat and other grains

Onion

Caraway

Basil

Rosemary

Yarrow

Vervain

Caraway

Wheat

Roses

Calendula

Sunflowers

Ash Tree

Apples

Pears

Blackberries

Honey

Food and Drink

Bread

Corn

Potatoes

Apples

Pears

Beer

Mead

Animals

Bees

Bats

Horses

Cattle

Bears

Ravens

Snakes

Deer

Salmon

Spells

Self-Reflection

Prosperity

Transformation

Ways to Celebrate this Sabbat

Decorate your altar with things related to your skill. 

Light a grain-colored candle for Lugh: brown, yellow gold, bronze

Harvest your own garden and share it with your "village"

Make bread of all kinds to share with your family and friends.

Host a canned food drive or donate canned goods to your local food pantry.

Make corn husk dolls (no sacrifice necessary!)

But you can!

Renew your home protection spells.

Have a Lammas ritual of self-reflection by meditating on the blessings in your life and the sacrifices you need to make to better your life.

Historically, I've ended this ritual by sipping a local fall wine and eating a slice of the bread my family made, alternating a bite and a drink until gone.

All I ask if you join me is that:

You have a witchy heart and a desire to share personal thoughts about your craft, without judgement of others

You please give credit where credit is due by leaving any and all of my original posts intact when sharing (image, prompts, signature, etc).

Check out the blog!

[thewideopenwitch]

I’ve been trying to find a way to practice my craft frequently since I’ve returned along the beam. So, I’ve decided to develop myself with a30-day challenge!

The first one I am doing will be from @maddiviner​. I'm starting with her Roots of Your Craft 30-Day Challenge to get my gears spinning again! It's for beginner witches, but as we're really getting into actual workings in my kiddo's Paganism 3 homeschooling class this year, I need to refresh myself on the beginner things. So, tomorrow while she's doing her weekly homework, I'll start blogging. 

I would LOVE for any witches, young or old, to play along. I have no idea where the prompts will take us, but I’d like to give more of us ideas to discuss our craft.

All I ask if you join me is that:

You have a witchy heart and a desire to share personal thoughts about your craft.

You please give credit where credit is due by leaving any and all of @maddiviner​’s original posts intact when sharing (image, prompts, signature, etc).

You please give credit where credit is due by leaving any and all of my original posts intact when sharing (image, prompts, signature, etc).

While I'm working on this, I'll be creating my own 30-day challenge of witchy journaling prompts for you and me to do together. I hope you stay along and enjoy the ride! 

[thewideopenwitch]

“An old writer, speaking of the powers of witches, says: 1. Some work their bewitchings only by way of invocation or imprecation. They wish it, or will it ; and so it falls out. 2. Some by way of emissary, sending out their imps, or familiars, to cross the way, justle, affront, flash in the face, barke, howle, bite, scratch, or otherwise infest. 3. Some by inspecting, or looking on, or to glare, or peep at with an envious and evil eye. 4. Some by a hollow muttering or mumbling. 5. Some by breathing and blowing on. 6. Some by cursing and banning. 7. Some by blessing and praising. 8. Some revengefully, by occasion of ill turnes. 9. Some ingratefully, and by occasion of good turnes. 10. Some by leaving something of theirs in your house. 11. Some by getting something of yours into their house. 12. Some have a more special way of working by several elements — earth, water, ayre, or fire. But who can tell all the manner of ways of a witch’s working; that works not only darkly and closely, but variously and versatilly, as God will permit, the devil can suggest, or the malicious hag devise to put in practice.“”

— The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft (via realhunterswearplaid)

[thewideopenwitch]

Important Reminder:

Witches who began their practice YESTERDAY are still valid witches Witches who began their practice 5 MINUTES AGO are still valid witches Witches who had to TEACH THEMSELVES are still valid witches Witches who had someone TEACH THEM are still valid witches Witches who have been practicing in secret for YEARS are still valid witches

Witches who didn’t realize that they’d been doing magic ALL THEIR LIFE are still valid witches

Witches who were initiated into a COVEN are still valid witches

Witches who work ALONE are still valid witches

You are a Witch the instant you decide you want to claim that Title, and no one can take that from you. So don’t let them take that from you

[thewideopenwitch]

Old people can"t understand when younger people are willing to cut a whole relative off. They have lived their entire lives in guilt or based on some sense of loyalty to someone based on blood. People will abuse you betting on that fact, just because ya’ll are blood that means you have to accept it. No, you don’t.

[thewideopenwitch]

Make fun of teen girls going through their “witch phase” all you want, but that is a young woman who has finally realized she is a powerhouse of spiritual authority who doesn’t need the world’s permission to manifest her desires. I would advise you not to fuck with her.

[thewideopenwitch]

Reblog this if you’re pro-receiving a brown paper package containing one (1) handwritten love letter, a small jar of strawberry jam from the farmers market, and a smattering of pressed flowers.