Harvest Moon last night so I guess it really is autumn now š
walk barefoot on stones in shallow streams.
talk to the wind and let it carry away your regrets.
forage for wildflowers to place on your altar, press in thrifted books, or give to loved ones ābe careful when identifying
watch sunrises and sunsets. wake up before the sun. bare witness to the painted sky.
spend hours in the woods among the wild. take long long walks or sit still and watch the world.
talk to plants and listen to them. make friends.
get field guides to trees, plants, birds, etc. that are native to your area. learn which are which. bookmark pages that you recognize or want to find.
sing back to the robins. caw back to the crows.
journal by firelight and feel the flame burn your worries away.
gather snow and bring a bowl inside. talk to it and tell it your worries. your fears. let it melt, transmuting your stress and worries into healing nourishment. bring it outside and water the soil. see how things can be changed.
dance. run. move your body to sweat, if this is something you can do
collect stones from the river and try to find the best ones. keep them in your pocket. hold onto them to remember that youāre an animal.
go to a lake and float. feel the water carry you. lifting you from your stress. bring a vial and collect some for spellwork.
make a necklace out of an acorn and thread.
stand in the rain. dance in it. lay down in the grass and let it pour. let it wash fears away, transform doubt to hope. start anew.
š¤£.š„§.š”¼.ā
(wild winter witchcraft here)
I don't know who needs to hear this but YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES IN YOUR PAGANISM AND WITCHCRAFT. We all do, to whatever degrees. Especially at younger ages or newer in our practice!
You will treat deities like PokƩmon cards, or appropriate native practices, or lie about signs, or argue over things you are deeply incorrect on, or think every deity is calling out to you, or that you are personally gifted beyond anyone else, or think your dreams are all past lives, or think you can transport back in time, or ffs that youre carrying a gods child, or even beleive you have telekenisis.
You are not broken or incapable, you are learning and cringe and confused (and often a child!) Thats being human. Let go of your mistakes, delete those posts, don't grip on and defend them and kick and claw. You can let it go. Please do.
Got my first tarot deck a few days ago! Universal Waite Tarot was definitely the right choiceāI love the colours, and the fact that the drawings are the same as RWS tarot means it's easy to find interpretations. The cards are beautiful! :)
I can't believe in the year 2024 we are still having to remind people not to put essential oils on their skin without diluting it with a carrier oil first
Retrieving the Reusable Ingredients and Getting Rid of the Rest
Reusable ingredients include crystals, shells, rocks, bones, and anything else that can be used again. Cleanse them in smoke or water and reuse them in your next jar.
Trash
Throw the contents into the trash or a dumpster, if you donāt want it near you.
Burying:
This is a more respectful way to dispose of materials, as long as it's safe to do so. Dig a hole at least half a foot, place the herbs that were used in the jar inside, and bury it in the ground. Make sure it's biodegradable and safe for animals before doing this!
Burning It:
Put the offering in a fire safe container (a pot, cauldron, etc) and safely light it. Make sure it's completely burned (don't let it out of your sight until the fire's out!) and then spread the ashes on the ground away from your house.
Releasing:
Release the materials into a body of water. Keep in mind that not all organic matters are safe for the water or for fish, so look it up beforehand
tip jar
eight years into my spirituality and I finally know what they mean when people talk about raising energy.
To raise energy you must get completely out of your mind. You must get into your body, into the present moment, forget time exists. It's about getting to a place and a mindset where you're simply just doing, being, not thinking.
And it cannot be forced. For years I've tried sitting, meditating, willing energy into objects or worse, into the world in general, and found it doesn't work.
Whether you get there by dancing in the shower, by meditating, by allowing yourself to feel an emotion viscerally, it doesn't matter. It just matters that you're not thinking.
And you can literally feel it. To me it feels like a blood rush to the head, my arms will usually raise above my head on instinct, and my face smiles. It feels like a shot of b12. It tingles.
Then the energy just moves with nothing more than a thought, an impulse, a desire. It just becomes. It just is.
When youāve spent enough time looking at the occult and witchcraft communities online, you begin to notice patterns that repeat themselves. The type of tools people use, the way people set up their altars, how much money people put towards their craft⦠I feel like it is important to talk about the true value of these things, because ultimately the tools arenāt what matter the most.
Before I go any deeper into this post, I want to put out a little disclaimer. There is no shame in spending a lot of money to buy fancy tools and such. This is all a matter of personal preference. This is not a post meant to shame people with expensive tools. This post is meant to reassure those who donāt have the luxury of buying expensive tools for their craft.
There seems to be a growing number of people online who talk about why you absolutely need this or that in order to do a little spellwork or honor some sort of entity. You need to buy this expensive candle to honor a deity. You need to use a cauldron of some sort to burn things. You need to be using this herb because it is the best thing youāll ever use. Iām here to tell you: you donāt need anything that you cannot afford or do not want. Although I do believe they are the minority, I have seen some individuals who will drag others through the mud because they arenāt seeing a reflection of their personal craft in other peopleās personal crafts. I feel like some people in the occult and witchcraft communities need to humble themselves and accept that some people simply cannot afford to buy expensive tools, or they just simply do not want to buy them.
I grew up asking my parentsĀ ācan we afford thisā instead ofĀ ācan you buy this for meā. I was always aware that my family wasnāt as financially well-off as others. I often saved my begging for Christmas because at least that was the time of year when people would go out of their way to please their families. Even today, now that I am an adult, I still pay extra attention to my finances. I donāt buy myself expensive things for my craft often. When I do, it is because something was on sale. I prefer to grow my own herbs, make my own tools and create things by myself. Thatās just my preference and it is also more affordable to me. I wasnāt like this when I first started practicing witchcraft, though. No, I was pretty set on buying all kinds of things when I first started. I saw all the pretty things other people were using and thought that I was going to need it. It took me over two years to figure out that all I needed was what I wanted. Two years is how long it took for me to realize that my passions beyond witchcraft could also be applied to my craft.
So, what is truly valuable in magick if not tools? If intention is what you are expecting me to say, sorry. That aināt it. Iām not a believer inĀ āintention is everythingā. I feel like intention is similar to tools, in a way. You can have them, but that doesnāt mean they will make the magick on their own. What I find to be most valuable, beyond intention and tools, is the ability of the individual.
Iām sure many of us have failed when doing spells and rituals, especially when we first started to actively perform spells and rituals. We didnāt get the results we were seeking. Some of us may have gotten the exact opposite. I know that was the case for me. I believe that is because our abilities were only just beginning to grow. You see, I like to think of the individualās ability to perform magic like a tree. It starts off as a seed. It has potential, but that potential needs a few things in order to grow. In the case of an individualās ability to use magick, what they need is energy, practice and patience. The individual may not see any results for a while, and if they do see results it may not be anything impressive. After some time, though, the individual will see their abilities grow. They will find what works for them. They will find their path. The individualās ability grows from that one, little seed into a sprout, then into a sapling and eventually, it grows into a magnificent tree.
Tools and intentions are only two parts of the formula to success in magic. The final, and most important thing, is the individualās abilities.
Queer beginner witch ā Experimenting with tarot, folk magic, and herbs ā Tree lover ā They/Them ā Minor ā TERFs/bigots/etc DNI ā Main is @i-am-an-omniscient-snail.
83 posts