Internet Witches Please Learn Your Stuff Before You Recommend Consuming Or Putting Onto Skin Things That

How do cards gain meaning in an occult sense? Like, both tarot and french-suited playing cards started as game pieces, but they have gained an understood meaning. Is it just someone whips up an organized table of connected ideas or is each card interpreted from a certain framework?

Oh good question!

Many things that we now consider staples of western magic are ideas that have been added to over generations by several layers of thinkers. Tarot Divination specifically is an excellent example of this!

In 1770, A french printmaker and occultist going by Etteilla published a book about how to do cartomancy with a 32-card Piquet deck. He writes down some simple but strict associations for the cards, and makes what is probably the first mention of reversals in carotmancy. He said that he learned the system "from an Italian." Now, its unclear how much of the system is his own invention, people have been doing cartomancy for as long as there's been cards, but the text presents a larval, bare-bones version of the cartomancy methods we know and love today.

Its 1780-ish. The Rosetta stone hasn't been discovered yet. Occult-inclined Europeans are obsessed with Egypt. That's where our boy Trismegistus is from! There's a concept in Egyptian mythology called The Book of Thoth, a mythical book of spells penned by the God of Knowledge himself. This was the Holy Grail for European Occult Egpytaboos.

In 1781, Antoine Court de Gébelin claimed that Tarot cards were the "original book of Thoth," Saying that Tarot cards had been used by ancient Egyptian priests for their own magical ceremonies, and that their designs contained ancient mystical secrets. This is 100% not true, but he writes a pretty fun pseudohistory for Tarot that involves Romani people bringing the decks to Europe through the Levant where they then taught its esoteric secrets to several Popes.

Then in 1783, Ettellia responded with another book. Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots ("Way to recreate yourself with the deck of cards called tarots") Where Ettellia basically claims "uhm actually I knew about tarot divination way before Court de Gebelin published that big ass book. But anyway here's an interpretation of Tarot symbology that includes multiple references to Egyptian, Zoroastrian, and Greek mythology." But the smartest thing he did was include spread methods that involved Thoth and Numerology. Napoleonic Occultists fucking loved Thoth and numerology.

In 1788, he formed a little magical society for the express purpose of discussing and workshopping ideas for Tarot divination. In 1789, he made a TRULY smart decision, and published a Tarot deck that was Specifically For Magic, and that basically cemented Tarots place in magical history.

Occultists just kept iterating! Someone would speculate "maybe the suits correspond to the elements" and people went "yeah, they correspond to the elements! That makes this tool even more fun and interesting to use!" Then people go "What if the suits and the elements also correspond to parts of the Self?" and people went "Sure they do! That makes this tool even more interesting!"

But its also not just one thread. Eventually you get the Golden Dawn saying "The Major Arcana correspond to the nodes and paths on our version of the Quabbalistic Sefirot, you know, the hermetic version with a Q." and some occultists responded "Idk about that! Love what you've done with the color symbology though!"

The development of magical ideas is an iterative process. It is people whipping up a table of correspondences, but that table needs a mythology to keep it together. Originally, the mythology that gave tarot "power" was its Egyptian pseudohistory, but these days its the fact that occultists have been iterating on and fine-tuning this system for hundreds of years.

Humans don't think in tables of information, they think in stories. The cool thing about stories is that they're flexible. If magic is anything, its learning how to engineer stories to make the tables of information more effective.

I'm gonna plug my patreon where I post all of my occult research if you wanna see more stuff like this

"When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night, with you head in you hands and nothing more to this life"

The Witch of the forest

This is your friendly reminder that herbs aren't inherently safe.

Natural doesn't mean Safe.

Lightning is natural. Opium, therefore heroin and opiate drugs are derived from poppies. Cinnamon oil will burn your skin. Lilies are toxic to cats and will cause organ failure. Activated charcoal will neutralize your prescription medications and literally anything else in your system. St. John's Wort will destroy your serotonin production and mess with your happiness threshold if it DOESNT KILL YOU FIRST.

So anyway.

Do some damn good research every time you go to eat, breathe, bring around your pets, bathe in, or smoke something. Be safe please.

For my fellow fibre arts witches, if you're starting to get the Annual Cold Weather Fidget, that driving urge to reach for hooks and needles and that big bin of spools and fabric lurking in your closet....

If you feel like Doing A Witchcraft, you can work some witchy into whatever you're making. Weaving, crocheting, knitting, nalbinding, stitching, embroidery, and knotwork can all carry magic and serve as a vehicle for creating spells, sigils, talismans, or enchanted wearables.

Am I saying you can put a spell into that pair of socks you're knitting? That scarf you've been working on? That pile of granny squares waiting to become a blanket? That cross-stitch piece you've been meaning to finish?

ABSOLUTELY.

There are even books on knot magic, witchy crochet and knitting patterns, and beautifully spooky cross-stitch and embroidery pieces. (And lots more downloadable patterns exist on etsy and fibre arts forums!) Perfect for chilling with your favorite hot beverage and current binge-watch while you keep your hands from getting bored.

Go forth and have fun with it!

Witch tip::

Eat a tarot card to gain its powers

To Witches Who Are Going Back to School

For those in the broom closet, or for those who are open, for baby witches and for the experienced, here are some back to school witch tips to help your school year be magical and spectacular <3

Draw sigils on assignments for good grades/to have your teacher appreciate your work, scratch them out really hard/fast or erase them to charge.

Charm your lip balm to be persuasive, or to be heard!

Draw a tarot card in the morning to see what you should be aware of for the day, or what you need to work on for the day.

Stir your morning tea or coffee counter-clockwise to rid bad energy, and stir clockwise to bring in good energy, luck, and any other sort of positive intention.

If you have a binder that acts as a book of shadows, place sigils on them to keep wandering eyes away.

Glamours, glamOURS, GLAMOURS!!!!! They work so well if you’re running late. I like to mumble them to myself and mediate on Rose Quartz when I’m in a rush.

Eat small snacks to keep yourself grounded, and don’t forget to breathe after each class. Trust me, I know it can get frustrating with obnoxious people.

Charm talismans/amulets/bracelets to help you be on time/remember your homework.

Put satchets in your lockers/decorate your locker to make it a little safe space or school-friendly altar.

Keep the list going! I started school Monday and I’m eager to see what else witches can do for school!

Every ailment, physiological or mental, is molecular in nature, because human beings are a collection of complex bio-molecular mechanisms.

Every cure and treatment therefore should be based on a molecular understanding. Even treatments that don't involve direct usage of chemicals, like therapy, should be based on an understanding that what they're doing is interacting with a chemical system.

Any "cure" or "treatment" that's based on stuff like "higher energies" or "body thetans" or "the power of prayer" or anything that claims to interact with something other than the body and its chemical processes, is a sham.

How to Dehydrate Herbs

This is my first post on my newly-minted digital grimoire, so I thought I'd start out with info I already know. Here's a short little guide on how to dehydrate herbs and other materials at home in your oven (if you have one). I usually dehydrate fresh materials instead of hanging them as firstly: I have a cat who will find a way to reach anything I hang up to dry, and secondly: there are some materials I don't feel comfortable leaving out in open air as they will likely rot. Also, it just saves on drying time.

Steps:

1. Grab whatever you want to dehydrate whether it be fruits, peels, herbs, veg, or (my favourite) eggshells.

Important Note: DO NOT EVER put plants which are known to be toxic or whose origins are unclear in your oven. It's never worth it.

2. Place your items on a sheet pan with parchment paper underneath (there may be lingering oils on the pan, but if you are okay with that feel free to skip the parchment).

3. If your oven is fancy and you have a dehydration setting, great! Use the recommended temperature. If not, set your oven between 160-190*. I usually set it lower, but if you're short on time it will work higher.

4. This is the most crucial step: keep your oven door slightly ajar in order to let moisture escape. However, very importantly DO NOT EVER LEAVE YOUR OPEN OVEN UNATTENDED (or your closed one, for that matter), especially if you have an older oven. Basic fire safety applies here.

5. The process usually takes around 2 hours if you are dehydrating thinner plants, but may take up to 3-4 if you are dehydrating something thicker like citrus peels or fruit slices. Either way, be prepared to wait a bit. You will know they are done when you can easily crush them if plants or they are breakably-solid if peels. With eggshells they will be brittle anyways, but it's nice to dehydrate them to more easily grind into a powder and also to kill any lingering bacteria.

6. Store herbs as you usually would in a container away from sunlight. Enjoy!

Sources:

Printer's Ornament (Chiswick Press, 192)