Nightmare Magick

How I Set Up My Alter Space

Your alter should be as unique and personal as you are. It’s a reflection of your space and your connection to your spirits. It should have anything on there that you feel connected to and stirs up magic inside yourself. So even though this is how I set up my alter there aren’t really any ‘rules’. Your alter can be as formal or informal as you like.

Crystals are one of the main things I keep on my alter. A lot of my crystals are small and I usually rotate them out depending on my mood or what I want to influence me or a situation I’m in. Currently I have a bunch of moonstones on there from the Full Moon the other day. I used them during my reading so I wanted to keep that energy present. 

I have a little bit of sage in a abalone shell left over from prior cleansing work. I keep that up on the alter too. I never toss out the soot from the burned incense just in case I need black salt for later. (I have heard about the shortage of sage so this is my last bit. I think in future I’ll switch up what I’m burning maybe Frankincense next time?) 

Sometimes I don’t have candles up there but I do like them for a fire element representation. My current obsession are white votives in clear glass holders I picked up from the dollar store. I like them because I can purchase so many. Next time I think I’ll grab some pillars and have the back of the alter lined with different sized candles.

I also use seashells for my alter, mostly for a water representation. I always like to have elemental displays just for balance. The other day I swapped out the shells for a jar of moon water though. 

Other things I have on my alter are things that represent my ancestors, small animal bones (naturally collected), and eggshells. Some of my other favorites to put on my alter are seeds, salt, flowers or herbs, coins, oils, sticks or rocks or anything that feels like it just goes there and adds it’s energy to that space. 

Mini Interview (or good luck) Spell Bottle

Made this jar bottle for my dad to take to his interview for a different position at his work. He got the call today and he starts in a few weeks! He said he felt a lot less nervous going in and that he’s never felt so comfortable and confident at an interview before.

Ingredients

- sweet orange essential oil: for confidence - frankincense essential oil: for good luck and to reduce stress - cinnamon: for prosperity, wealth and a spell booster - bay leaf: for success, good fortune, achieving a goal and wishes - sage: fulfills wishes - black pepper: for courage - nutmeg: for luck and prosperity - green candle: for money, prosperity, growth and luck - Fe rune: represents prosperity, promotion, and aids in finding a job - green paint

Directions

1. Add black pepper to the jar and light your green candle 2. write your wish on bay leaf, burn it and add the ashes to the jar or crumble it up or roll it and put it in the jar 3. Add pieces of cinnamon sticks or cinnamon powder, sage and nutmeg 4. add a few drops of frankincense and sweet orange essential oil 5. cap your bottle and seal the jar with the green candle wax. 6. sprinkle ground nutmeg onto wax before it dries 7. paint or draw on Fe Rune. I used acrylic paint and a dotting tool for nail art to paint it on.

may your soul be overgrown with moss. may your veins fill with rainwater and your lungs swell with flowers.

The basics of Beginning

Being a new witch is terrifying.

Some of us start early and don’t realize it until much later.

We where the little children that dug up worms and gathered flowers and collected nice rocks and that read to many books and didn’t belive a single word we read in the Bible (This last thing is a personal statement and experience). And then with sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-five we rediscover magic as a part of our lives.

Some of us don’t start untill we think that it is already to late to start with something new.

We have been doing the same practice for over a decade and it never felt quite right. We have a start-stop relationship with magic. We think it might just not be for us at all.

But now we want to start again from the very beginning and do it right this time.

Maybe you recognize yourself in those statements? Or meybe not.

Whether the above stated fits you down to the blood or not at all. A fact is that you want to be a witch.

You want to practice magic. You want to walk the croocked path. You want it with all your soul. Right?

When you are at this point of knowing that you want to be a witch but not knowing how to be a witch then the internet is your best friend and your worst enemy.

Everyone has their own opinion, their own instructions, their own rules. And none of them feel entirely right.

Don’t curse, curse all you like. Use crystals, use wands, use this, use that. Have an altar, have a garden, have a cat/toad/bird.

But few people ever tell you to start with what you have. To do what feels right for you. To use what is at hand.

Ask yourself: what do I have?

Can I practice openly?

Do I want an altar?

Do I care about any gods? Do I want to worship any gods?

Do I want to use … in my craft?

Is this really what I want to work with or who I want to work with?

Do I really believe this/that will work?

Ask yourself these questions and more! Question everything. Only use in your craft what feels right to you.

Write it down in your diary, your book of shadows, your grimoire, your whatever. Just write it down.

Write: This is awesome! I love it! It works so well for me! I’ll incorporate it into my craft from now on! Have to learn more! Research! Research! Research!

Or: That was terrible! Never again! Not my thing! Oh hell to the no! Nope! Nope! Nope!

Experiment. Fail. Try something else.

Be ready for the failure. Not everything is going to work for you. It doesn’t matter if it works for every other person on the planet, if it doesn’t work for you it doesn’t work for you.

Not everything is going to be available to you either.

You shouldn’t try to force your way into something that’s not meant to be for you. That doesn’t mean you have to be dense about it tho.

Knowledge is attainable. Talent or The Right to something is not.

(Be respectful please. Some aspects of a closed practice or religion should not be used unless you are a part of it)

Also be ready for the Argument™.

Some people will tell you that everything you do is wrong and that the only way to do it right is to do it their way or not at all.

This can be discouraging especially if you are just starting out.

Always remember that people that say things like that aren’t relevant or important.

They don’t want to help you, they just want to be right about something for once in their life.

The point of this post is to tell you that you don’t need a garden full of herbs if you can’t have one. That you don’t need a wand if you can’t make one. That you don’t need 30 different herbs or crystals if you can’t afford them. And that a pot will do just as good a job as any cauldron ever will.

Also:

My pointers for new witches as an overview

Work with what you have

Do what feels right

Use what feels right

Follow your own path

Be ready for failure

Be ready for the Argument ™

It’s never Your craft vs. Someone elses craft

Follow your star, or don’t

Your craft, your choice!

Now go out there and be a witch.

-J. S. Morrigan

Things to put in your book of shadows

Of course, only put in your book of shadows/grimoire what you want. If you don't want to put certain subjects in your book then that's fine. It's your book, utilize it how you want. This is just a masterlist of ideas that I've put together. Feel free to add anything else to the list that I may have missed, because there's absolutely no way I included everything.

And for the love of all the gods, if you come across a closed entity or practice, don't try to work with the entity or practice if you're not already part of that group or tradition. You can research it but don't practice it.

+ A blessing and/or protection

+ A table of contents

+ About you:

Your current path

Your personal beliefs

Your spiritual journey

Favorite crystals/herbs/animals

Natal chart

Craft name

How you got into the craft

Astrology signs

Birthday correspondences (birth tarot card, birth stone, etc)

Goals (if you have any)

Anything other relating to your personal practice

+ Safety

Fire safety

What NOT to burn

Plants and oils that can be toxic to your pets

What crystals shouldn't be in water, sunlight, etc

Things that shouldn't be put out in nature (salt, glass, etc)

Potion safety

How to incorporate blood safely

+ Core concepts:

Intention and how it works

Directing energy

Protection

Banishing

Cleansing

Charging

Shielding

Grounding and centering

Visualization

Consencration/Blessing

Warding

Enchanting

Manifestation

+ Correspondence

Personal correspondence

Crystals and rocks

Herbs and spices

Food and drink

Colors

Metals

Number

Tarot card

Elemental (fire, water, air, earth)

Trees and woods

Flowers

Days

Months

Moon phases

Zodiac

Planets

Incense

Teas

Essential oils

Directions (north, south, east, west)

Animals

Local plants, animals, etc

Dream symbology

+ Different practices

Practices that are closed to you (some examples below)

Voodoo and Hoodoo **Closed**

Santeria and Brujeria **Closed**

Shamanism and native american practices **Closed**

Wicca and wiccan paths

Satanism, both theistic and non-theistic paths

+ Different types/practices of magick

Pop culture magick

Technology magick

Chaos magick

Green witchcraft

Lunar magick

Sea witchcraft

Kitchen magick

Ceremonial magick

Hedge witchcraft

Death witchcraft

Grey witchcraft

Eclectic witchcraft

Norse witchcraft

Hellenic witchcraft

Animism

+ Deities

The deity/deities you worship

Different pantheons (the main five are Celtic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Norse, all open)

Deities and pantheons that are closed to you

Common offerings

Their epithets

Their mythology

Their family

Deity worship vs deity work

Prayers and how to make your own

Deity communication guide

Devotional acts

Ways to get closer to them

+ Other spiritual entities

Angels

Ancestor work

Spirit guides

The fae

Demons

Familiars

House spirits, animal spirits and plant spirits

Other various folklore entities

Spirit etiquette

Cemetery etiquette

Setting boundaries with the spirits

Communication guide and etiquette

Grounding, banishing, protection and cleansing, aka: "Spirit work safety guide"

How they appear to you

Common offerings

Circle casting

+ Divination

Tarot cards

Oracle cards

Tarot and oracle spreads

Pendulum

Numerology

Scrying

Palmistry/palm reading

Tasseography (Tea leaf reading)

Rune stones

Shufflemancy (Shuffling of a playlist)

Dice divination

Bibliomancy (Randomly picking a phrase from a book)

Carromancy (Melted wax)

Pyromancy (Reading flames)

Psychic abilities

Astrology

Aura reading

Divination via playing cards

Lenormand 

Sacred geometry

Angel numbers

+ Other types of magick

Candle magick

Crystal magick

Herbalism/herbal magick

Glamour magick

Hexing

Jinxing

Cursing

Weather magick

Astral work

Shadow work

Energy work

Sigils

Art magick

Knot magick

Crystal grids

Color grids

Music magick

Charms, talismans and amulets

+ Spellwork

What makes a spell work

Basic spell structure

What NOT to do

Disposing of spell ingredients

Revitalizing long term spells

How to cast spells

What to put in spells (See correspondence)

Spell mediums- Jar spells, spoken spells, candle spells, sigils, etc

Spell timing

Setting up a ritual

Taglocks: What they are and how to use them

+ Holidays and Esbats

Yule

Imbolc

Ostara

Beltane

Litha

Lughnasadh/Lammas

Mabon

Samhain

The 12 full moons (Esbats)

How to celebrate

Deity specific holidays

+ Altars and tools

What they are

The different types and their uses (travel altar, working altar, deity altar, ancestor altar, etc)

What you can put on your altar

What you use your altars for

Common tools in witchcraft

How to use the tools

Food and drink

Common herbs in recipes

Sabbat recipes

Moon water: What it is and how to use it

Potion bases

Tea magick

How to get your herbs

Foraging

+ Mental health and self care

Bath magick

Affirmations

Burnout prevention

Aromatherapy

Stress management

Mental health coping mechanisms

+ History of witchcraft

+ Dream records

+ How to differentiate between the magickal and the mundane

+ Calendar of celestial events (Esbats, retrogrades, etc)

+ How to dry herbs and flowers

+ What chakras actually are and how they work within Hinduism

+ History and traditional uses of reiki

+ The witches' alphabet

+ The runic alphabet

+ Common witchcraft terms

+ Common symbols in witchcraft

+ Your own witch tips

+ Good witchcraft books and authors to avoid

+ Any online resources you utilize often

Money spell! Reblog to charge it with your intent; the more people see it, the more powerful it becomes. Magic should be fun!

✨🌙🕯💐☀️💐🕯🌙✨

emoji spell for the success of goals/endeavors. likes charge, reblogs cast

i wanna hide my face in someone’s neck and sleep

Practical Magic: Circle Casting

If you’re brand new to witchcraft, you’re probably seeing this phrase left and right: casting the circle, or circle casting. For some, it seems fairly obvious, because casting circles is often represented in pop culture, from the Devil’s Traps in Supernatural to the circle of brooms in Practical Magic. 

However, what purpose does casting a circle serve? How do you cast a circle? Why does it have to be a circle and not, say, a square? And do I always need to cast a circle when working magick?

Well, we’ll take this in small bits!

Why should I cast a circle?

A circle serves several different purposes in witchcraft. For some, it’s a means of protection. To others, it’s a means of magnifying ritual energy. For still others, it encourages slipping into meditative consciousness. Whatever the reasons for the tradition, it remains a rather good way of getting the spell started.

In terms of protection, the circle acts sort of like a bubble. After all, it’s not just a cylindrical wall. When a witch casts the circle, he or she is envisioning the energy rising up from where it had been cast on the floor and forming a dome over the ritual space, and below the floor to encase the space in a bubble of intent. For many witches, this forms a sort of shield from outside spiritual influences, and to enter the circle after it’s been cast would require cutting a doorway into it.

As you cast your spell or work your rite, the energy you send out interacts with your altar, your tools, yourself, and your ritual space. The circle acts sort of like a can of soda that’s been shaken up. It holds in all of that energy, allowing it to increase in concentration and potency, allowing it to continuously interact with all ritual components, including the witch casting it. When the rite is done and the circle is opened, it sends all of that energy out into the world with extra force and intent, allowing it to more effectively do as the witch desires. This is particularly useful for rites and spells intended for someone else, or for spells intended to cause large changes.

Furthermore, casting a circle is usually the first or second act done in a spell - often a witch will cleanse a ritual space by asperging or smoke cleansing before casting the circle. As a result, casting the circle is an ideal start to a rite because it begins to set you into the state of mind you need for spellwork. By channeling intent and starting up the circle, you get your magical energy moving so that by the time the ritual starts, you’re already warmed up (like an athlete taking a couple of laps around the track so she can be warmed up and ready to go for practice or for the game). 

Why does it need to be a circle instead of another shape?

This largely is rooted in tradition. If you really feel that a different shape is more sacred than a circle, you’re welcome to use that instead in your practice - some cultures believed in triangles being the shape of perfection. However, in most cultures and beliefs, the circle is a rather sacred shape. We see it everywhere, the only shape that can truly be called perfect - no corners, no sharp edges, no beginnings, no endings. It is a symbol of eternity, and reflects the shape of Mother Moon and Father Sun.

The circle also has another impact in witchcraft in that it can be seen as a fertility symbol - representing the full womb. 

When casting a spell and beginning with a circle, you’re creating a sphere of energy - a magical manifestation of the principle of “as above, so below.” In a sense, you’re not casting a circle, but instead casting a sphere. It allows you to encompass your ritual space in a way where the energy can flow smoothly and freely like water. In general, other shapes don’t allow this kind of movement. Just like in Feng Shui, corners collect energy, prohibiting it from moving freely and causing it to grow stale and potentially sour into negative energy. Without the corners, you don’t have to worry about stale energy.

Do I always need to cast a circle in order to work magick?

The simple answer is no. The more accurate answer is that it largely depends upon the tradition you follow and what brand of magick you work. There are witches out there who will absolutely refuse to cast any kind of magic without the protection of the circle. Meanwhile, there are witches out there who only cast the circle for esbats and Sabbats. What feels best for you should be what dictates how frequently you cast your circles.

In my case, I always cast a circle when I am doing a full rite. Since many of my spells are done on the fly (intuition is key for me, so I don’t always write out elaborate spells), I don’t cast a circle for every working I do. Instead, with some spells I make use of circle imagery in order to provide the same effect - the pentacle is basically a mini circle. If you’ve seen the picture I showed of the protection altar I made for a friend of mine, you would notice that I have the pentacle there, but on either side of the pentacle are crystals pointing outward - through the use of imagery, and by using the crystals to project the energy, I’ve managed to cast my circle in the process of casting the spell.

When I’m working in my kitchen, I never cast full ritual circles - the pots and pans provide the shape, and I can cast the circles in the bottoms of those utensils if I need to empower the food.

I do, however, recommend casting circles any time you wish to work with spirits or any time you perform divination or healing spells. This is as much for empowerment as it is for protection.

How do I cast a circle?

Casting a circle can be as elaborate or as easy as you feel it needs to be. It can make use of actually drawing a circle on the floor, or it can be entirely energetic and felt. Ultimately, like any aspect of magick, the circle should be cast in the way that you feel it should be. The guidelines I give here are exactly that: guidelines. Work with them however you feel works best for you!

Step One: Cleanse your space

Cleansing your ritual space is necessary for any magick, depending  upon your craft. When doing a ritual spell, I always cleanse with sage smoke or asperge with holy water. When you feel your ritual space is cleansed of all negativity, you’re ready to begin the casting of the circle.

In my practice, I go around the circle a total of three times. The first time is when cleansing the space. In addition to cleansing the room, I cleanse the circle in a clockwise direction, stopping briefly at each cardinal point to allow the smoke to linger in the space. For me, this helps begin the process of casting, and enhances the visualization.

Step Two: Physical Representation (If Any)

I don’t often draw a circle on the floor. This is largely because most of my magic is intuitive. However, when working with the coven, we sometimes do lay out a circle depending upon the rite we’re working. Especially for new witches who struggle with visualization, laying out a circle can be very nifty and helpful. As such, if you’re new to witchcraft, I do recommend laying out a circle if you feel it helps. If you’re still in the broom closet and want to cast a circle discreetly, you may have to rely upon visualization alone.

Regardless, there are a couple of ways you can lay out your physical circle. The first is to only provide representations at the Corners, or Cardinal Points - North, East, South, and West. If laying out the circle is ritualized for you, it is often recommended to start in the East and move clockwise around the circle. When providing only representations at the Corners, you can either place candles in each direction, or you can provide something that represents the element associated with it (a feather for air at the east, a candle for fire at the south, a glass of water at the west, and a jar of salt for earth at the north, for instance). My coven has considered casting spells at the beach, and we all loved the idea of taking tiki torches and setting one up in each corner, lighting them as we greet each guardian.

The other way of laying a physical circle is to actually draw out the whole circle in some way. If you’re at the beach or in an area where you can draw a circle in the earth, you’re set. But other times, you may be in an area where there’s a bit of foliage, or you’re indoors and don’t have the luxury of scratching a circle into your apartment’s carpet. Depending on what kind of surface you’re using, you can pour salt around the ritual space as a circle, or you can use a protection powder (such as ground eggshells, or ground cinnamon). If laying down something that’s granulated or powdered is a bad idea, because carpets, some witches will use ribbon instead.

One of my favorite moments with my coven was when we had cast a circle on a hill for a Sabbat rite. The hill was rather overgrown, and we were working in a small, grassy clearing. Since the rite was for Imbolc, we had decided that spring flowers would be beautiful. So we took flowers and laid them out in a circle around our ritual space.

Whatever method you use, it is often easier to lay out the physical circle before casting it spiritually.

Step Three: Greeting the Quarters

The second pass around the circle is done as a means of welcoming the Quarters. If your tradition does not have guardians at the cardinal points, you may substitute as needed (welcoming the Faeries, or welcoming deity, for example) or you may omit this step entirely.

Starting at whatever direction is traditional for you (I always start in the north, but many witches prefer to start in the east), greet the guardian, welcoming it to the circle. I do this with an invocation and with the ringing of a bell. Something to the effect of:

I welcome the element of Earth to the North, that it strengthen the circle.

Or

I welcome the Guardian of the North, that it may bear witness to my work. Come in peace and love, so mote it be!

You would move in a clockwise direction around the circle, stopping at each cardinal point and welcoming its guardian or spirit in turn.

Once done, return to the altar.

Step Four: Casting the Circle

My third pass around the circle is the actual casting of it on a spiritual level. Depending upon your tradition, you would do this with a staff, sword, athame, or wand. My personal tradition is flexible - cast it with your hand if you feel that is more effective. I do, however, often cast the circle with a wand - the quartz in my wand helps to empower the circle, and I love encouraging that as much as possible.

With whatever implement you prefer in your casting hand (some traditions emphasize casting hands, others don’t; in general, your casting hand is your dominant hand or whatever hand you use to write with most often; if you’re ambidextrous, this could be either hand), start with the point you began at. Point the implement toward the floor at that point (physical circles help with this - point at the border you’ve created) and begin moving clockwise about the circle, envisioning your energy flowing outward from you, through your implement/fingertips, to the floor and creating a barrier.

Personally, I always tend to see energy as being like slow, fire-like mist that glows blue. I see it coming outward from my heart, traveling down my arm, through the wand (glowing brighter as it passes through each crystal) and then passing onto the ground where it ignites like a little wall of fire. Every witch sees it differently. That’s just how I visualize it.

Some witches will see the circle forming a sphere on its own. Great! If you feel you need to shape the sphere yourself, you can do so. Once you’ve cast the circle, go back to the altar and lift the energy upward from the floor until it closes above your head, creating a dome, and then push it downward in the same manner so that the sphere encloses the space below ground.

Visualization is key.

Congratulations! You’ve cast your circle. Some traditions will mark this in the ritual format: “Here is the border where the circle is cast none but love may enter, none but love may leave” or “The circle is cast in the presence of Goddess and God, so mote it be!”

When doing a simple spell and casting a circle for it, I acknowledge the casting quietly before setting to my work.

In Conclusion…

As you can see, casting a circle is something that can be very elaborate or very simple. It can be required for all workings or it can only be required for some. I feel that the way you cast your circle is often deeply personal. For that reason, in the steps I gave as an example above are only some of the key parts of how I cast the circle without revealing any personal details of what I do for it when not working with the coven.

Every tradition, every path, every witch casts circles differently. If you are starting out as a witch, I greatly encourage you to create your own, personalized method of casting the circle. If you keep a Book of Shadows (as most witches do), the way you cast your circle should be one of the first things that you write down in it.

All that said, may all your circles be unbroken!

Blessed Be! )O(

my beautiful wife ibuprofen