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Okay, I know the reblog was parody but now I'm wondering if that could be used as a self-cleansing. Like if I just put a small chunk of sea salt in a glass of water and drink it, would that do anything? I'm tempted to try it.

Sure, a let's see if we can invent one:

9 oz clean, filtered drinking water (from a safe source)(important)

3 grains kosher salt (bigger grains, easier to grab)

Point at the first grain of salt and say, "this is the new moon, and it draws away impurities into the ebb tides.

Point at the second grain of salt and say, "this is the full moon, and it draws purity up on the flood tides."

Point at the third grain of salt and say, "this is the changing moon, and it draws energies to their proper place."

Drop the salt grains into the water. Stir the water clockwise nine times, each time saying: the ocean cleanses.

Drink the water or leave it somewhere to passively cleanse a room.

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"I don't believe Tarot is real, but it does work"

Expand on that, king (genuinely curious)

I feel like…

okay, so it’s a lot like conceptual art, or like introspective meditation, at the risk of sounding pretentious

Like. It’s not so much about “the cards are a portal to a higher wisdom that knows more than me” thing- it’s more of a, “given the symbols drawn, could I interpret them posing a question or possibility or suggestion?” Followed by, “is this applicable to my current context? COULD it be?”

Like.

I don’t lay out á tarot hand and say “ah yes, the devil and the tower, I am about to be betrayed”

But I MAY lay out a hand and say, “okay, devil and the tower. Something treacherous and danger. Am I approaching a treacherous or risky situation in my life? What might be a tipping factor? Am I being deliberately reckless? Maybe I should spend some more time working on X project I’ e been thinking of before spending money on it” or “you know what, I HAVE been kind of uncomfortable with X thing, I should say something” or “yeah okay I KNOW Tom from work sucks to work with, I KNOW, yeah maybe I should consider ways of handling that”

Less of a magic oracle, more of a tool for doing literary analysis on real life. Like simplifying everything and laying it out flat so I can gain some distance to untangle my problems without in-your-head crap like projected feelings and social obligation getting in the way and muddying the waters.

So like. I don’t think tarot cards can legit tell the future, but I DO think that self-reflection, mindfulness, and consideration sometimes allow us to predict and calculate our own circumstances.

So, IMO- It’s not real. But it works

If that makes sense

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💫🕯🌱🍀🎍🍀🌱🕯💫

~I am successful in my endeavors~

⭐Likes charge, reblogs cast⭐

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it's really surprising how much joy and comfort i get from the symbol of the pentacle now that i've fully discarded the shell of my christian faith and fully embraced being a witch. it used to be kind of unsettling, now it's nice and comfie and i like it.

so much of my faith used to be ruled by fear. now i feel like i'm still aware of dangers but i can do something about them and i can set boundaries, same as in the real world. like, sure, the city may be dangerous but i can set protections and boundaries and decide not to go anywhere that makes me uncomfortable (locking my doors, pepper spray, etc), and i still live here and go out and experience the world and i'm happy. the spiritual world might also be dangerous, but i can set boundaries and protections (wards and shields) and i can decide not to go anywhere that makes me uncomfortable (for now, spirit and deity work), and i can live here and experience the world and i'm happy.

it's so different from the shapeless "if you stray too far then they'll GET YOU" that i felt in christianity, where all you could do was hope to stay on the path set by a fickle god and ask for his protection to cover you with no guarantee if it would. i feel like every single step of this journey has been dogged by that leftover terror, that i would experience horrible consequences for going into a witchy shop, or buying a deck of tarot cards, or attending a ritual. and so far, those consequences have not manifested. i'm still doing fine. my soul appears to remain intact. i'm godless and free and i'm happier than i've ever been.

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hecate

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source unknown

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the trees you grew up with have not forgotten you. their branches still whisper your name in the breeze and their roots remember the paths your feet once traced through their shade.

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New plan:

I start selling outrageously expensive withchraft soaps. Every piece is promised to have a spell in it according to what you need, soaps for wisdom, soaps for clarity, soaps for good luck in board games. One of them is a soap that promises faithfulness, but it's one's spouse who must use it. The kind of rich ladies who do shit like buying magic soaps in hopes of making their husbands stop cheating will certainly buy it.

And then they'll keep finding unexplained strands of long hair in their home. Husband insists he has no idea whom those belong to or where they come from. He isn't lying. These pointless fights are the final straw and divorce ensues. Decades of trying to build a home together crumble, the house and all the nice furniture they've bought together are put for sale.

They never figured out the truth about the hair. It's my hair. I put it in the soap as I was making it, on purpose. I'm buying all their good shit from secondhand stores. This is the only way to obtain decent furniture these days.

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Loopholes

Thinking about general versus specific spells and loopholes in magic today…

I find that general spells are often less effective than spells that are really specific. Or, at least, a general spell’s effects are more difficult to measure than a spell with specific instructions and expectations.

Leaving spells general also leaves room for loopholes. Now, depending on the paradigm you’re operating from, loopholes may not be an issue. But they can cause unexpected and sometimes unwanted side effects, or cause the primary desired outcome to manifest in a way that isn’t ideal.

For another example, consider if you cast a spell for someone to take a romantic interest in you with no specifications on the type of person you’re looking for. That coworker you don’t particularly like but who already thinks you’re neat is likelier to form romantic feelings for you than, say, the unattainable hot guy whose name you don’t know and with whom your only conversation is “Would you like that small, medium, or large?”

This, in my paradigm, is because those connections either already exist or they’re stronger. You know that coworker better, they know you better, and you have more ties than the hot barista you see once every three weeks.

If you want the barista’s attention and not the coworker’s, it’s important to specify that — to close the loophole.

I always think about connections working against me, too, when I’m doing magic. If a person who hates me is the primary interviewer at a company I’m interested in, I have to account for their rancid opinion if I want to get that job. I have to do extra work to either get around, rewrite, or disconnect the existing connection in order to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome.

My partner and I are currently looking at buying a house (yay!). Our area is pretty expensive, and very affordable homes tend to be… well, to put it kindly… shitholes.

Those conditions (those connections) are strongly ingrained into the environment. I can’t single-handedly change the economy, though I wish I could. And I can’t force a house to spontaneously appear between two existing houses, even though that neighborhood is absolutely perfect and I desperately want to live there. There isn’t room, and that isn’t physically possible.

Well, alright, I suppose I could do a spell to convince both owners to chop up their parcels into smaller pieces for sale, do another spell to make the parcels affordable, and then another spell for someone to build an affordable house on the land. But that’d be a teeny little house and yard! It might work better in a location with bigger parcels and more space between houses, but this is a cute little rural-type suburb, not the country roads further out of town. As it is in this location we’re looking at, to make it viable for our wants and needs would be physically impossible; we’d be compromising too much one way or another, and it wouldn’t be worthwhile!

But I can do spells for houses with specific qualities to come onto the market, and I can include my particular price range! I can do magic to encourage the bank to give us a better deal on our pre-approval! I can do a spell to urge sellers to drop their prices or accept an offer that’s under their asking price but within our budget!

It’s a matter of identifying what I want and what might stand in the way. It’s also about considering the things I’m leaving unsaid, or that could be taken in multiple ways. Like, if I say I want a basement, and we find a house that’s perfect, fitting all our desired qualities!

…except that basement floods several times a year, and that’s why it’s unfinished, so it’s wasted space that requires expensive yearly upkeep or a massive, pricey overhaul to prevent for the future. That would be a hell of a loophole to discover. Closing as many loopholes as possible can help a spell produce a result that’s exactly (or close to exactly) what I expect it to be with as few unpleasant side effects as possible.

Another method I’ve seen, which I think comes from @windvexer, is the “if/then” method of creating conditions within a spell. I find it’s really useful for closing loopholes, since it keeps a spell from deviating from your instructions or fizzling out when it can’t fulfill its purpose as written.

The method looks like this in practice:

“This spell is a money spell. Its purpose is to bring $500 in tarot commissions to me by the end of April.

“If April is not possible, then by the end of June.

“If $500 is not possible, then no less than $300.

“If not by tarot commissions, then this money will come to me via tips and subscriptions.

“If not by tips and subscriptions, then this money will come to me via other types of contract work.

“If any final condition (end of June, no less than $300, contract work) is not possible, I will receive a sign in the form of three cardinals sitting on the hood of my car, and the spell will end.”

Thus, the loopholes I’m worried about are closed, and I have a condition set to end the spell and send me a sign if it isn’t possible. It’s a simple but very effective method that I’ve found really useful for getting super specific in my spellwork!

Anyways, point is, loopholes matter because connections matter and therefore the space between those connections matter. If one of my spells fails or produces an unexpected result, loopholes are the first things I look for. What happened, and could I have prevented it? How so? Then note it down, and do the next spell.

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i have officially started a nice clean journal! My old one was just a composition book that i decorated a bit. I'm glad I started with the composition book because it helped me not be all precious about writing my entries and just get in the habit of writing things down. The new one is a really pretty notebook (from spirit halloween, actually?) with a celestial moon-and-sun pattern. It felt auspicious to start it on the first day of the new year.

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Simple Ward Against Spirits (and Other Varieties)

Forbidden peanut butter cookies

I've been very much enjoying working with a new style of ward. It's pertinent materia magica blended into air-dry clay, worked into small disks stamped with protective symbols, and hung up near doors and windows (or carried).

Sometimes I paint them; this time I just filled in the symbols with India ink.

The recipe is quite nice as you can make several little wards for the effort of one spell. And they work up pretty quickly.

The recipe:

3 substances aligning with intent (sets given below)

A small handful of air-dry clay

Paint or ink to decorate, as desired

Thread or cord to hang up, if desired

Clear-dry glue (modge-podge used in picture) to seal clay, especially helpful to block strong-smelling herbs

Steps:

Work over each substance individually to ensure they are carriers of power. Ensure each substance is empowered and aligned with its duties before moving on.

Blend all three substances into some air-dry clay (the clay itself is not worked with as a correspondence, but could be, if you're into it).

Divide the air-dry clay into individual balls and flatten them out into disks. You may have to add plenty of extra water to counteract the dehydrating effect of salt or herbs.

Poke a hole at the top of each disk (I used the back end of a matchstick) if you want to hang them up.

On one side of the disk, carve or paint any protective symbol pertinent to your faith. Pictured, an equilateral cross.

On the other side of the disk, carve or paint a symbol that expresses the specific sort of protection you're working (such as a very simplified sigil, or perhaps elemental or planetary signs you're calling on, or a minimalist animal, and so forth).

Once the clay is dry, coat with a clear layer of glue or modge-podge. This helps protect against moisture and minor chips but primarily is to stop the charm from having a strong odor if you use, say, garlic and dill.

Combinations of Materia:

Use perhaps an eighth of a teaspoon of each to start with; I find the clay can hold a lot of foreign materials, but expect it to significantly change texture and dry out. Of course, use any materials you prefer.

Use only dried herbs. Fresh will not do.

Against Evil

Dill (to perceive, forewarn, and shelter against against evil)

Garlic (to protect against evil)

Salt (to neutralize evil)

Against Unwanted Spirits

Garlic (to protect against the uninvited)

Red pepper (to set boundaries against the uninvited)

Basil (to guard against transgressors)

Against Unwanted Energies

Rosemary (to shield and shelter)

Clove (to create a barrier that limits energies)

Salt (to neutralize unwanted energies)

Notes:

The spell can "end" at any number of moments; you can seal it once you mark symbols, or only after it's dried and painted, or only after you've done knot magic to weave a special hanger, etc.

IME, a very powerful set of wards can be made by linking 4 such disks, each one to a different element, and hanging them in the cardinal directions as your path specifies; thus assigning an elemental guardian working in tandem with his brothers to guard those roads of egress. Try making a base formula shared between all four disks, and then adding a unique ingredient to each one of them that corresponds with the element.

Air-dry clay is fragile. These wards are not especially suited to be carried around, but can be carried in a pinch. If you like, the idea of a ward breaking when it's done it's job is very applicable to brittle clay disks.

You can work greater magic into them; knot magic for the hanger, earth magic for the clay, layering on more power if you paint, and so forth.

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dislike the part of the family gathering where I can just slowly feel my sanity getting chipped away

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Crafts of the Witch Useful to Learn

Welcome to December 25th, here's some stuff about witchcraft to think about because you're on your phone looking for a distraction :)

So anyway here's stuff that's really useful to learn how to do before you actually need it because putting it all together for the first time on game day is stressful.

Creation and Desecration of a Poppet

A poppet is a deeply sympathetic representation of someone or something (usually another person).

According to the law of sympathy, whatever you do to the poppet will happen to the person it represents. You could cleanse and bless it, or smite it.

Poppets can be made in a wide variety of ways, from paper dolls, to clay figurines, to crocheted stuffies - anything you like. They also must be worked over magically to link them to their target.

The most ideal poppet is decorated to look very similar to the thing it represents, and is imbued with a taglock (such as hair, nail clippings, footprint dust, etc).

Learning Prompts:

The handicraft of creating the poppet - start with any arts and crafts you're interested in and see if they'll work for you

Practice making several poppets - you do not need to consecrate them. How easy is it for you to decorate it just like the real person? How easy is it for you to include taglocks?

Find a disposal plan. ""Voodoo dolls"" are steeped in public awareness; will it be safe for you to throw away the poppet in the trash when you're done with it?

Consecration or enlivening poppet as target. Find or develop a ritual to fill the poppet with magical life so that it becomes the target. Practice this once or twice (perhaps on a poppet of yourself, to cast blessings or prosperity magic on yourself)

Desecration or severing link. Find or develop a ritual to end the sympathetic link between the poppet and its target. Practice this once or twice.

Storage and tending of enlivened poppets. They are alive and they act like it. If you intend to have poppets sitting around for long-term spells or to use as-needed, you will need a system of storing them so that they "go to sleep" and remain undisturbed until you need them.

Consecration, In General

Here I mean "consecration" to be an act of magic which anoints an object as sacred unto a purpose, and therefore primed for magical use. In crude terms: you're making an object magical and giving it a purpose at the same time.

Consecration is a very useful thing to know how to do. In and of itself it can form a kind of minor enchantment (I consecrate this mug of oolong tea to be a potion of survival +1), but it can also prepare the way for powerful enchantments (I consecrate this ring to become a divine protector, ready to receive the powerful enchantment I soon cast upon it).

Learning Prompts:

Find or create a minor consecration spell which can be cast in under a minute. Strive to obtain one which is covert and can be done even in the presence of others. (Perhaps we could call this a 'cantrip'). Such a spell tends to be suitable for moving fate a few degrees over, or to dig a shallow pool in the tides of reality.

Find or create a hefty consecration spell. Consider what abilities or access you have that allows you to redefine the fate and purpose of an object. Contemplation of this spell can provide great insight into one's own belief and path. Such a spell may completely reorient fate, and carve new channels into the waterways of reality.

Practice minor consecrations on 5 different types of objects. Consecrating the tea, that's easy - stir it a few times. But how to consecrate a hairbrush? How to consecrate a mirror?

Practice major consecration twice, unto two very different domains. Perhaps a pepper oil of fiery smiting, and a crystal bracelet of deep soothing. This is an opportunity to compare and contrast the powers you raise when you work within different domains.

Desecration, In General; and Spell Reversal

To make profane; as in, to remove the magic from something and make it no more than a lump of physical matter, or a meaningless event like scattered dust on the winds of fate.

In my opinion, all witches should learn this - "don't raise up what you can't put down" also includes "don't enchant shit if you don't know how to undo enchantments."

To know how to nullify magic also means you can nullify unwanted and harmful things around you, and take the force and energy out of them.

Learning Prompts:

Find or create a minor desecration spell, one that you can cast on the fly and without tools or ingredients. Such a spell may be like a slapping a broom on a dusty rug; it will shake free things not tightly held.

Find or create a major desecration spell. Such a spell is like steam cleaning and shampooing a rug; it must remove every particle of magic and leave nothing behind but stripped fibers.

Practice minor desecrations 5 times in day-to-day life, targeting stank vibes and irritating situations that do not serve you.

Practice minor consecrations and desecrations 5 times by consecrating a stone, candle, etc., unto a magical purpose, and then removing the consecration.

Find an opportunity to cast a major desecration, which you may find the opportunity to do the next time the need for banishment comes up; or when sorting through old magical tools you no longer need, etc.

Find or create a solid spell reversal, one that you can use without having to have physical spell remnants on hand. Note that reverse to sender is not the same as nullifying your own magic.

Binding Divination Tools to Veracity, and Sundry Divination Management

Or if you like, binding veracity to divination tools. Binding is not baneful magic. Binding means to attach one thing to another thing, or to prevent something from being ways.

You can cast a binding on your divination tools to constrain them to only tell the truth, to truly peer beyond the veil, and only deliver what it can see; and never reflect your personal whims.

There's plenty of magic you can cast for your divinatory tools to make your life easier.

Prepare a binding spell to constrain a divination tool to only reflect the kind of truth you want. Do you want a tarot deck to only show your true state of mind? Do you want a set of runes to only read the will of the gods? Do you want your charm set to only read on the future, and not the past?

Find or create a protection spell to stop undue influence on a divination tool. This does not mean "evil spirits are manipulating your reading." Undue influence also means the strong emotions of querents, random psychic garbage, and the like; but it can also have an impact on the way you phrase questions and work with the tool itself.

Find or create a spell to enchant your tool as a magical seer/oracle. You can use a tarot deck out of the box, of course. You can also enchant it to be a magical object that obtains truth from mystical sources. Try it and see if you like the difference.

Find or create a charging ritual to revitalize your divination tools. This is a good opportunity to examine elemental energies; what kinds of energies are best suited to the purposes of divination and seeing beyond? The full moon is classically used for such purposes. Challenge yourself to recharge your divination tools once a month for 3 months, and see if you like the difference.

Blessing, In General

You have the power to generate and coalesce benevolent and helpful energies, and to distribute them into the world around you. You can bless anything you like, and perhaps the more the merrier; it's a very fine way to transform a space, and put love into the world.

Try considering blessings to have 2 parts; the first is to evoke a desirable force, and the second is to apply the force in a certain way: You could evoke the winter dawn as a blessing power, and then ask it to do something specific (provide a calm day, to make wise choices, to avoid bad traffic, etc).

Write your own minor blessing spell that you can perform in a minute or less. Try centering this blessing around a wonderful and benevolent force, whether it be a certain god, mushrooms, unconditional love, and so forth.

Write a separate minor blessing spell using a very different focus. Try the deep blue calming waters of the deep ocean, or the sprightly breezes of alpine hills, or the feeling of the first sip of a perfect bowl of soup; but make it have really different vibes from the first blessing.

Practice both minor blessings and see the difference. Challenge yourself to use each blessing cantrip 5 times. Try clustering the blessings to fill a space with that kind of energy (such as five items on desk blessed under the alpine breeze, and five items in the bathroom blessed under the deep ocean). Can you feel a difference in the spaces as you move in and out of them?

Write a major blessing using the various benevolent and lovely powers of your practice. This is another good opportunity to explore your practice. When you are in need of love, kindness, grace, and softness, what part of your path rises to meet your needs?

The Big Practice

Consecrate a poppet unto yourself. Bind and enchant a divination tool to be a powerful oracle of truth, and read on the most helpful equipment the poppet needs (RPG style: weapon, armor, familiar, potion?).

Whatever the answer, make a tiny container spell which serves the purpose. Consecrate it to be the tool that the poppet (you) needs.

Give the enchanted container spell to the poppet and cast a blessing on it, to be empowered with the new tool it has been granted in life.

Carefully store the poppet and its tool.

Periodically, perhaps between 1 to 6 times a year, recharge your divination tool and discern what new tools the poppet might need. Desecrate the old tool if you need to (or let them stack up), and consecrate new tools.

Keep the poppet and its tools for as long as you like, carefully severing the link between yourself and it when you're done with it.

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This is one of the funniest holiday cards I have ever seen.

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My kiddo (known as Nugget) is two. This is prime time for learning animals and their noises.

This has triggered a theological argument.

My spouse has a figure of Gullinbursti, Freyr's golden boar, on the household altar. Whenever Nugget sees this figure, he declares, "It's a cow!" If you attempt to correct him, he will moo at you.

He and Spouse have had this argument five times.

More recently, we have decorated for The Holidays. Among our The Holidays decor is a slightly malformed white plush bull I made to honor Mithras a few years ago. (It was day 10 of our pre Christmas COVID quarantine and I was unemployed.)

Upon discovering The Bull, Nugget picked it up and declared, "it's a goat!" He then made Donald Duck ride it around while baaa-ing.

Pagan baby problems. If the sun breaks down next year, I apologize.

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I kinda hate "Pagan Carols"