I feel like not enough people know that you can just go do witchcraft. Like yeah, all the pretty and aesthetic things you see online can be really expensive, and if you live in a place where witchcraft is frowned upon it can be hard to hide things, but your practice can literally be anything you want.
Part of my practice is making friendship bracelets with colors of what I want to manifest. I learned morse code and tie my goals into the bracelet. It look like a normal bracelet, no one would know the difference unless I told them. Your manifestations and spells can be verbal and whispered to the wind, your sigils can look like doodled stars or stick figures, your altar doesn't need to be anything more than the tools you use (if you even need an altar). You can put spells together based on what you have and what the things around you mean to you.
You do not need to buy things for witchcraft or have a very visible practice, just do what feels right for you. Your practice is what you make it.
Domain: Rage, War, battle, revenge, skill, glory, vastness, bloodshed, resilience.
Epithets: son of Peleus, King of Phthia, swift-footed, lion-hearted, Godlike, shepherd of the people, breaking through men, brilliant, inimitable.
Imagery/symbolism: Shield, spear, the Lyre, golden armor, the heel, the sea, helm, the pyre.
Colors: red, black, gold, blue, yellow.
Animal: Horse, lion.
Offerings: Flowers, Candles, incense, art, poetry, lamps, gold, decorative shields, sea/war imagery, water, wine, meat, gin, milk, honey, horse imagery, bread, fruits, sweets, lyre, jewels, shells, spices.
Devotional acts: working out, honoring Patroclus, learning self defense, Personal Challenges, reading the Iliad, learning spearing, sea gazing, horse riding, running.
Play tarot klondike solitaire while listening to music as a creative way to sort the cards in order before reshuffling them again.
Can also be used as divination, as source describes, for a grand total of one part game, one part cleansing, and one part divination!
Rings add weight to the area of life that the finger represents, or could reveal imbalances. A ring placed with intent can enhance areas of your life. This can be strengthened by rings with corresponding crystals. When a ring is worn unconsciously, it more likely refers to the negative trait or imbalance that corresponds with that finger. Left hand: Corresponds to your personal and private life. Connected to family and personal identity or internal issues. Your left hand reflects the energy you take in. Right hand: Relates to your public life. Connected to work and your relation to society. Your right hand reflects the energy you give out. Middle Finger Element: Earth Considered the finger of cultural identity. It reflects how you related to justice, law, order, and responsibility. Can also signify inner security or materialism. Consciously placed ring: Reduce anxiety, improve stability, desire for self-development. Unconsciously placed ring: domestic unhappiness, insecurities, judgmental, lack of security. Crystals: garnet, onyx, agate, topaz, tiger’s eye, jade.
Index Finger Element: Water Considered the finger of personal identity, how you relate to and see yourself. Associated with leadership, ambition, and self-confidence. Consciously placed ring: Boost self-esteem, increase authority, improve confidence. Unconsciously placed ring: Damaged self-esteem, feeling not good enough, feeling better than others, controlling personality. Crystals: tourmaline, lapis lazuli, peridot, opal, emerald. Ring Finger Element: Fire Represents your extra-personal identity and self-expression. It represents creativity and love of beauty. If it’s a wedding ring or engagement ring, it represents success in finding a mate. But if bought by the wearer it can represent self-love. Consciously placed ring: Strengthen creativity, express friendliness, improve aesthetic awareness. Unconsciously placed ring: Creative frustration, concern with image, desire to be liked. Crystals: garnet, ruby, pink tourmaline, diamond. Little Finger Element: Air Considered the finger of impersonal identity. It reflects communication and sexuality. Also represents confidence in relationships and strength. Consciously placed ring: Improve communication, express sexuality/sexual identity, gain confidence in regards to relationships. Unconsciously placed ring: Poor communication, lies, difficulty with sexuality/sexual identity Crystals: blue topaz, sapphire, aquamarine. Thumb Element: Ether Your thumb symbolizes your spiritual identity. It relates to your will power, determination, and application of personal energy. It also reflects your ability to reason and apply logic. As the thumb is separate from the rest of the fingers, and a very useful finger, it also represents strength, independent thought, and freedom. Consciously placed ring: Boost energy level, increase will power/motivation, provide comfort, increase reasoning, increase personal strength and independence. Unconsciously placed ring: lack of energy, feeling powerless, lack of control, poor reasoning, feeling trapped, stubborn/stuck in own way, need for control, aggressive/forceful Crystals: moonstone, diamond, amethyst. Rings on all/many fingers This can indicate a negative circumstance that you are being faced with. It shows a likely lack of feeling safe or secure in your world, and that your putting on a front. It can also signify avoidance to deal with issues affecting your life.
What Constitutes An Altar?
An altar, a sacred space used for worship, meditation, and magickal practice. It serves as a focal point for spiritual energy, spellwork, and connection to deities/spirits, ancestors, or personal intentions. However, an altar doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive—its power comes from the intention, not the appearance. There may be some debate on the topic, but ultimately an altar is a space created with intention and spiritual purpose, and that's as specific as you can get. This is because each altar is as unique as it's creator and their magick.
An altar can be as simple or elaborate as you need. While traditional altars may have statues, candles, tools, and crystals, a minimalist or budget-friendly altar can be just as effective.
Basic Elements of an Altar:
• Surface – A small table, shelf, windowsill, box lid, or even a cloth spread on the floor.
• Representation of Spirit/Deity/Intention – This can be a photo, a symbol, a small figurine, or even a handwritten name or sigil.
• Personal Objects – Anything meaningful like jewelry, a cup, a handmade charm, or natural objects from your environment.
Elemental Representations (Optional):
• Earth – A rock, salt, soil, a small potted plant.
• Air – Incense, a feather, a piece of paper with a prayer or spell.
• Fire – A candle, a matchstick, a small LED light.
• Water – A small bowl of water, a seashell, a vial of rainwater.
If space is a concern, you can adapt your altar to fit small or temporary setups:
• Portable Altar (A Box or Pouch) – Store sacred items in a small wooden box, tin, or fabric pouch and set them up when needed.
• Wall or Vertical Altar – Use a floating shelf, a corkboard, or wall hooks to create a sacred space.
• Digital Altar – A private folder on your phone or computer with images, prayers, and intentions can serve as a modern altar.
• Hidden or Foldable Altar – If privacy is needed, keep items in a drawer or behind books and only bring them out during practice.
You don’t need expensive ritual tools—many everyday or natural items work just as well:
• Candles – Birthday candles, tea lights, or even an LED candle.
• Incense Alternatives – Dried herbs (like rosemary, sage, or cinnamon) burned in a small fireproof dish.
• Crystals & Stones – Local river stones, shells, or even broken glass polished by the ocean.
• Offerings – A piece of bread, a drop of honey, or fresh water.
• Statues & Symbols – Print out images, draw sigils, or create simple handmade representations.
• Chalice Alternative – Any cup, mug, or small bowl can be used for offerings.
• Wand or Athame – A twig, butter knife, or even your own fingers can direct energy.
• Keep it Clean – Even a simple space should be treated with respect and intention.
• Change It with the Seasons – Add seasonal items like leaves in fall, flowers in spring, or snow water in winter.
• Use What Feels Right – Your altar is personal—only include what has meaning for you.
• Charge It with Intention – Light a candle, say a blessing, or simply sit in meditation to empower your sacred space.
An altar is not about luxury or appearance—it’s a personal, sacred space where you connect with the divine, your inner self, or your magickal practice. Even in a small, low-budget setting, your altar holds immense spiritual power when built with intention, meaning, and respect.
Since I have seen a lot of posts about correspondences in witchcraft going around again, I wanted to stop for a minute and talk about how correspondences work and why you might want to make sure that you understand the correspondences you are using in your own craft.
This is likely an oversimplification, but I think that we can break down correspondences into three main categories:
Cultural Correspondences - these are often heavily steeped in the mythology and folklore of a particular region. They are often but not always correspondences of items found in that region. This is where correspondences become the most varied because, despite what you may have read in Those Bad Witchcraft Books, culture is not universal. A great example of this is that most Western cultures associate the color black with Death and Mourning but a lot of non-Western cultures have the same association with the color white. It stands to reason that this type of correspondence will work the best for you if you are sticking as close to the correspondences of the bioregion that you grew up in as possible (1) and that they will be most effective when used magically on somebody else from that bioregion (2).
Material Correspondences - these correspondences are based on the physical properties of the item in question. Some plants are edible, some medicinal, and some poisonous. Things with thorns can hurt you when you touch them. Quartz has high levels of electric conductivity. The idea here is that if Rosemary repels insects, it can be used in a banishment spell to repel that unwanted "insect" from your life. These are, in my opinion, the immutable correspondences - the item you are using will ALWAYS carry its physical characteristics with it into your magic. Spicy peppers will always be Hot and Burning, so-called "Weeds" will always grow tenaciously, and Sugar will always be Sweet. It is worth keeping in mind here that when using plants, the part of the plant may affect whether it carries that correspondence. Sometimes only one part of the plant carries a particular property - consider the difference between the sweet scent of rose petals that we use in love spells versus the sharp thorn that would be better used for protection. 3. Sympathetic Correspondences - The base concept behind sympathy is that two things that are alike in some way share a connection with one another that can be harnessed magically. The more alike that two things are, the deeper the connection. There are many ways that this is used in magic. A lot of herbal correspondences involve sympathy through the Doctrine of Signatures. This is the thought process that anything shaped like an ear can be used to affect ears/hearing magically. The Doctrine of Signatures gets rolled in a little bit with Cultural Correspondences as it is heavily rooted in Western herbalism, but it deserves a mention on its own. Another way that sympathetic magic makes its way into correspondences is the idea that an object from a particular place carries some of the energy of that place which can be harvested for magical intent. You see this in the use of bank dirt in money spells or cemetery dirt in baneful magic. This is also where Holy water, moon water, and stormwater come into play - here we are assuming that something that has been done to the water (being blessed by a priest, charged in the moon, or collected during a storm) carries an inherent energy that can be then transferred to your spell. Depending on your viewpoint, you may or may not agree with the concepts of sympathetic magic.
And that's the whole point of this. Witchcraft, as a whole, isn't the sort of path where you are supposed to proceed based entirely on blind faith. If you're flipping to a certain page in Scott Cunningham's infamous Green Book and finding the first money herb you come across to use in a spell, you are probably doing yourself a disservice. I suggest that you look closer. Not only will the physical correspondence change how your spell manifests (I've written about this before) but you may find that you don't even BELIEVE or AGREE with that correspondence at all. And maybe that's not important to you (but if that's true, why are you even reading this?). But I suggest that it should be. That understanding of a correspondence deepens your connection with the energy of the item you are looking to use. Moreover, exploring it further may give you all sorts of juicy ideas for spellwork to augment that energy.
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Earth
Direction: North
Time: Midnight
Season: Winter
Color: Green, brown
Zodiac: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Ruling planets: Venus and Saturn
Tarot Cards: Pentacles, Coins
Tools: Pentacle, salt, stones, dirt, crystals, wood, flowers
Cystals: Emerald, Jet, tourmaline, quartz, onyx, azurite, amethyst, jasper, peridot, granite.
Animals: gopher, bear, wolf, ant, horse, stag, deer, dog, cow, bull, bison, snake, worms, moles, voles, grubs
Herbs: Oak, cedar, cypress, honeysuckle, ivy, primrose, sage, grains, patchouli, nuts, magnolia, comfrey, vetivert, moss, lilac, lichen, roots, barley, alfalfa, corn, rice.
Rules: Grounding, strength, healing, success, stability, sturdiness, steadfastness, foundations, empathy, fertility, death, rebirth, wisdom, nature, animals, plants, money, prosperity.
Water
Direction: West
Time: Dusk
Season: Fall
Color: Blue, Indigo, Sliver
Zodiac: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Ruling planets: Moon, Neptune, Pluto
Tarot Cards: Cups
Tools: Ocean, sea glass, cup, bowl, seaweed, hag stones, cauldron
Cystals: Moonstone, pearl, silver, aquamarine, amethyst, blue tourmaline, lapis lazuli, fluorite, coral, blue topaz, beryl, opal, coral
Animals: fish, snake, frog, crab, lobster, eel, shark, dragonfly, seahorse, dolphin, sea otter, seal, whale, alligator, crocodile, beaver, octopus, penguin, salamander, turtle, starfish, koi, coral, barnacle, manta ray, manatee, jellyfish, nautilus, heron, duck, geese, crane, swan, water birds, ammonite, dragons, serpents
Herbs: seaweed, aloe, fern, water lily, lotus, moss, willow, gardenia, apple, catnip, chamomile, cattail, lettuce, kelp, birch, cabbage, coconut, cucumber, comfrey, eucalyptus, gourd, geranium, grape, licorice, lilac, pear, strawberry, tomato
Rules: emotion, intuition, psychic abilities, love, unconscious mind, fertility, self-healing, reflection, lunar energy, deep feelings, curses, death
Fire
Direction: South
Time: Noon
Season: Summer
Color: Red, Orange
Zodiac: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Ruling planets: Sun, Mars
Tarot Cards: Wands or Swords (depends on belief system)
Tools: Athame, candles, swords, wands, dagger, lamp, flame
Cystals: Carnelian, red jasper, bloodstone, garnet, ruby, agate, rhodochrosite, gold, pyrite, brass, fire opal, lavastone, tiger's eye
Animals: Lion, snake, coyote, fox, ladybug, bee, shark, scorpion, horse, mantis, tiger
Herbs: Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, basil, cacti, marigold, chilis, garlic, mustard, nettle, onion, heliotrope, hibiscus, juniper, lime, orange, red pepper, poppies, thistle, coffee, jalapenos, lemon, cumin, saffron, coriander
Rules: Energy, will, destruction, strength, courage, power, passion, lust, sexuality, anger, war, new beginnings, protection, loyalty, transformation, action, movement, achievement, creativity, desire, willpower
Air
Direction: East
Time: Down
Season: Spring
Color: Yellow, gold, white, light blue, pastels
Zodiac: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Ruling planets: Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus
Tarot Cards: Wands
Tools: Feather, wand, staff, incense, broom, bell, sword, pen
Cystals: Amber, topaz, citrine, jasper, agate, pumice, alexandrite, amethyst, fluorite, mica, clear quartz
Animals: Birds, flying insects, spiders, bats
Herbs: Bergamot, lavender, marjoram, peppermint, sage, dandelion, bluebell, clover, frankincense, primrose, lemongrass, pine, aspen, yarrow, violets, vervain, myrrh, dill, anise, aspen
Rules: Intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, logic, thought, communication, truth, inspiration, intuition, memory, creativity
Tip jar
Early Summer Morning by Mikhail Kornilov
Where you are in your spiritual cycle
Central cycle lesson
Positive Influence
Negative Influence
Advice
Thought I would share this spread that his been super helpful for me and for others that I read for! Hope it has good results for anyone who decides to utilize it!
Things that have helped me feel closer to my deities:
Praying before their altars (bonus points if you write your own)
Read books other than their myths (books you think they’d enjoy themselves)
Meditating with them
Learn about magickal subjects related to them
Dedicate a journal for notes and document experiences you have with that deity (including moments where they’ve assisted you and any divination conversations you’ve had with them)
Listen to their messages and follow through with them
Light incense that reminds you of them
Find artwork that feels like that deity and hang, print or save them
Divination Methods (Runes, Tarot, Pendulums, Bone Throwing, etc.)
Watch content on different subjects they’re related to (documentaries on death, relationships, crime, etc.)
Dedicate, care, and/or name pets, plants, plushies, etc to them
Learn not just their pantheon and myths but the culture that influenced them
Wear jewelry dedicated to them (bonus if you have that deity enchant them with protection)
Share meals with them
Thinking of them in passing (like “hey that thing reminds me of *insert deity*”)
Talk casually at their altars and give them an itinerary of your day
Define your relationship with that deity and refer to them accordingly (if its a more formal/in reverence, use a formal title. if it’s warm/personal, use an affectionate name.)