Uncrossing Powder: •Angelica •Hyssop •Cayenne •Sea Salt •Frankincense •Black Pepper •Garlic

Huginn and Muninn by benu-h

Fresh Apple Autumn Cake with Honey-Cinnamon Glaze

It’s fall y’all, and while for some that means pumpkin spice season, but for me it means apple season! This cake is great for a Mabon or Samhain feast, and isn’t too complicated to make. Let’s get to it!

Keep reading

Ok, going back to my chakra rant, it’s not fishy to y’all that “everybody” has the “same 7 chakras”???? Every single person??? In the same place with the same colors??? That’s not weird to you all in the slightest???

vegetarian summer pesto ravioli

- ✨🍝🌿🌼

what you’ll need;

[ basil pesto ravioli ]

• 3 oz cooked cheese ravioli

stability, love

• 2 c fresh basil

happiness, healing, friendship, love, protection

• 1/2 c sunflower oil**

abundance, love, healing, energy

• 3 garlic cloves

protection, healing, strength, purification

• 1/3 c sliced almonds

love, healing, compassion, grounding

• 1/2 c parmesan cheese

love, comfort

• salt & pepper to taste

protection

[ steps ]

• blend pesto ingredients together until smooth & creamy then toss together with cooked ravioli, garnish with more cheese if you’d like and it’s ready to serve

**olive oil charged up in the sun is a great substitution for sunflower oil if you don’t have access to any during lockdown

- 🍝🌿

[ rosemary mashed potatoes ]

• 12-15 halved mini red potatoes

summer fire, energy, stability, grounding

• 1/4 tsp rosemary

strength, protection, mental clarity

• 1 tbs butter

love

• an amount of milk?

i personally don’t have any strong associations for milk, so..

• 1 tbs sour cream

joy, friendship, love

• 1/8 tsp garlic powder

protection, purification, strength

• salt & pepper to taste

protection

[ steps ]

• making mashed potatoes for one is always awkward for me, sorry for the odd proportions; boil up your halved potatoes with your rosemary for something like 10-15 min or until you can stab the potato with a toothpick/fork, strain and mash together with your butter and add small amounts of milk at a time till it’s just creamy enough, then add in your sour cream, garlic powder & salt/pepper

- 🍝🤍

just some things i was thinking about this afternoon

Blót

A friend of mine that is not heathen was having trouble explaining blót to his girlfriend, who is also not heathen.  I liked my answer enough that I wanted to share.

Blót is an Old Norse word that refers to a ritual of sacrifice.   It is the origin of the English words blood and blessing.

A central idea to Norse thought is that a gift demands a gift.  Blót is a ritual in which we give gifts to the gods in thanks for what they have given us.   In pre-Christian times this was done through animal sacrifice, though sacrifice of weapons, armor, or other significant items like jewelry is known to have occurred.

The essence of blot, for me, is that I am giving back to the gods a gift of what they have given me after it has been shaped by my own efforts into something new.  For instance, I will give jewelry I have made, or food I have cooked.

Blót is a ritual of developing  with the gods.   Friendship are formed by giving of yourself to another.   This ritual is about creating and sustaining friendship with the gods. 

lammas

- 🥖🌾🌻🍂✨

lammas, or lughnasadh, is the first of our three annual harvests and is celebrated on august 1st; this holiday is centered around giving thanks for and reflecting on the abundance’s and opportunities given to us this year. this sabbat marks the time period in which we‘ll now begin to notice the whispers of autumn creeping in, though still plenty warm, the sun will soon set earlier and earlier and we may even notice just a few, small yellow leaves brushing by in the breeze~

[ recipes ]

• heart-warming potato soup

• vegetarian mushroom ravioli

• cheddar garlic biscuits

• gooey s’mores bars

[ activities ]

• making corn husk dolls

• lots of baking! drown the house in bread

• tend to plant life and make sure it’s strong & ready for the seasons coming

• picnics (wear sunscreen! bring/plan for shade! social distance!)

• camping (heavy shade is a must, be safe in the heat!)

• foraging

• good deep sweep of the house/your space

• deep dusting while you’re at it

[ spellwork ]

• protection & warding

• healing & restoration

• growth & prosperity

• gratuity & offerings

• reflection & planning

• intention setting & manifestation

[ crystals ]

• honey calcite

• howlite

• tigers eye

• peridot

• citrine

• pyrite

• clear quartz

• moss agate

• smokey quartz

• black tourmaline

• clear fluorite

• green aventurine

• sunstone

• hematite

[ herbs ]

• basil

• hops

• cinnamon

• valerian

• cayenne pepper

• bay laurel

• rosemary

• garlic

• thyme

• ginger

[ colours ]

• orange

• yellow

• white

• gold

• brown

• tans/beige

• richer greens

[ grains ]

• wheat

• rye

• wild rice

• brown rice

• oats

• grits

[ veggies ]

• sweet potato

• normal potatoes but especially russet, yukon golds, red potatoes, and those tricolour minis

• corn & sweet corns

• carrots

• any squash (summer, zucchini, pumpkin, etc)

• wild mushrooms (be f*cking.. oh my gods be f*cking careful here- just use these as offerings or in spells, please don’t even think about eating wild mushrooms unless you could consider yourself an expert on foraging and have done plenty of thorough research)

• earthy deep coloured mushrooms (the edible kinds; portobello, baby bella/cremini, shiitake)

• eggplant

• green peas

• spinach/rich greens

[ fruits ]

• grapes

• black currant

• raspberries

• apples

• lemon

• apricot

• elderberry

• fig

• peaches

• blackberries

• blueberries

• watermelon/other melons

• banana

[ nuts ]

• almond

• walnut

• pistachio

[ vegan & omnivore proteins ]

• tofu

• edamame

• turkey/‘turkey’

• chicken/‘chicken’

• salmon, mackerel

• scallops

• crab/imitation crab (snow, king crabs) **(imitation crab isn’t vegetarian/vegan, it’s just ground whitefish instead of crab meat, if you didn’t already know)

• mussels

[ cheeses ]

• white & sharp cheddars

• bleu cheese

• goat cheese

• feta

• marinated cheeses

• gouda

[ drinks ]

• tart, dry, medium bodied berry wines

• airy, crisp white whines

• light-medium brew beers, dryer and not too heavy bodied/bitter (samuel adams boston lager is perfect for lammas in my opinion if you wanna feel like you know what’s up or you’re just looking to try out new drinks, & miller/bud lite is also A1 if you’re a cheap date like me)

• any sort of spiked or nonspiked apple beverage (yes even just plain apple juice)

• ginger beer

• iced teas/coffee/matcha

• americanos/cold brew

[ decoration ]

• scythe

• corn husks

• dried sunflowers

• grain stalks

• iron

• cast iron

[ flowers ]

• sunflowers

• chamomile

• calendula

• marigolds

• yellow roses

-

this, whew, is just about everything i’d like to have on here i think. i’ll be adding recipes as the season goes on probablyyy, and i might add in more specific little notes like i did with the beer and stuff if i find anything else like that along the way, feel free to leave any questions or feedback, hope this was helpful!! wishing you all abundant health this harvest~

When someone blogs about a spell, consecration, ritual or any personal magical or witchcraft work, they usually leave something out intentionally or unintentionally, said or unsaid. My first witchcraft teacher taught me to always add something to my spell work and especially if a spell had an even number of components to make it odd by addition. As a witch you need to make a spell your own, something that you and your spirits add to the mix. While most anybody can use a well made spell without edit to reasonable success, a witch tends to seal theirs with some personal flair. I have not heard this specific advice repeated by any of my subsequent craft teachers; however, it rings so true and perhaps sensible that I have always held it. Of course my subsequent teachers have emphasized making your own spells. So the emphasis on personalized witchcraft holds.

Money/Prosperity/Fortune spells I usually do:

Foods:

Oatmeal, pinch o salt, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice

Diced potato, finely cut beef, salt paprika, basil, lemon zest, scrambled egg

Tilapia & Shrimp - salt, cilantro, lemon, paprika, chilli powder, basil

Steamed white rice, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, milk

Green tea with lemongrass, lemon, & mint

I usually use sea salt, but whatever

Jar: Basil, Bay, Carrot, Egg shell, Lemon slices, pennies, sealed with green & yellow wax, I used Chinese lucky coins tied to a ribbon to tie around the jar. 

Altar: Gold cloth, 2 green taper candles, 1 yellow chime candle, a crap load of foreign currency, pennies, serpentine, carnelian, jasper (yellow or greenish colors), dragon’s blood scent, fehu rune and/or the Sun card from shadowscapes, and some of the wands cards depending on context

Galdr: chanting “fe fe hu” for about half an hour, sometimes I mix in, depending on context fehu with uruz or ansuz and so on, and/or ansuz (the z sounds can conflate between uruz and ansuz, and the u sound can conflate hu all three, imo)

Listen to your favourite song about the subject, use lyrics like a chant. Dress up during song. Wear jewelry or clothes like a body altar (gold and green colors, brown and copper are pretty good, coins and currency signs, etc) to invite prosperity to you.

Enchanting a coin, a favourite coin, and wearing it (in your shoe, in your pocket, on a necklace, in your wallet is preferred tbh - you can even shake it to help “activate” it) 

Magic vs. Medicine?

People who believe in witchcraft know there are things in this world that science cannot explain. Many witches also believe in the healing power of nature. Because of this, there tends to be a lot of overlap between witchcraft and alternative healing.

Some alternative healing modalities, like herbal supplements, crystals, and essential oils, are incredibly popular with witches because they align so well with a magical worldview. And that can be a beautiful thing. If you find that taking CBD oil or diffusing lavender makes you feel good and gives you a sense of empowerment, then it absolutely has a place in your life.

The problem is that alternative healing (and, by extension, magic as a whole) is often framed as being in competition with conventional medicine. It’s presented as an “either/or” — either you believe in doctors and medicine, or you believe in energy healing and herbal supplements. This is not realistic, and it may even put people in danger.

The irony of this is that the first witches were also the first doctors. In Ancient Egypt, doctors would invoke the gods to imbue medicine with healing power, or curse a disease to make it leave a patient — these approaches were paired with actual medicine. In medieval Europe, witches and cunningfolk were the keepers of medical knowledge and would often serve as healers.

Even today, most pharmaceutical medications are made from naturally occurring ingredients. For example, antibiotics are synthesized from bacteria and fungi. These medications are not less natural than the medicine people used hundreds or thousands of years ago, but they are more refined thanks to modern technology. Rather than trading a natural remedy for an artificial one, you’re often just taking a more effective form of the same substance.

Personally, I like to use magic and alternative remedies to treat symptoms, but use medication to treat the underlying cause of the problem. If I have bronchitis, I might drink echinacea tea and diffuse eucalyptus essential oil, but I’m also going to take a full course of antibiotics to kill the infection.

Likewise, if I’m having a bad mental health day, I might take a bath with lavender or do some energy healing on myself, but I’m also probably going to call my therapist and continue taking my prescribed antidepressants.

Some witches have a lot of resistance to therapy, psychiatric care, and psychoactive medications. I’ve heard every possible argument, from “psychoactive meds lower your vibration/block your psychic abilities/dull your ability to feel energy!” to “if you tell a therapist you believe in magic, they’re going to think you’re crazy!” These arguments are completely false, plain and simple.

I’m a better witch when I’m in therapy and on my meds, because I’m a better person when I’m in therapy and on my meds. I’m better able to focus, set goals, and be aware of my body, which are all important skills in magic. I have no doubt that if I wasn’t doing what I need to do to keep myself stable, my mental health would suffer for it.

Good therapists know the importance of religion and spirituality, and they will respect your beliefs. No matter what your beliefs, a good faith-affirming therapist or counselor is always a good idea.

Your therapist is not going to think you’re crazy if you tell them you can astral travel, or talk about an experience with a pagan deity. What they will do is let you know if your experiences are outside the realm of healthy spirituality, and give you guidance on how to keep yourself safe if this is the case.

The truth is, whether we want to talk about it or not, not everyone who sees angels or talks to fairies is having a genuine spiritual experiences. As many as 63.3% of delusions in schizophrenia patients are religious in nature. If we are going to encourage people to seek out direct experiences of the spiritual, we also need to inform them on how to recognize when those experiences aren’t healthy or are not grounded in reality.

Psychosis refers to any experience that is not grounded in reality, including hallucinations (false sensory experiences) and delusions (false beliefs). Psychosis is not a mental disorder, but can be a symptom of many different disorders. It can also be an isolated incident in someone who may not usually experience breaks from reality.

Som if someone claims to have been visited by Isis, or Cernunnos, or the Virgin Mary, how do we know if they’re describing a genuine spiritual experience or a psychotic episode?

First of all, look at context. If someone claims to see angels or to be the reincarnation of a god immediately after taking drugs, after pulling an all-nighter, or while running a high fever (all potential causes of psychosis), they may be disconnected from reality and may need medical attention. On the other hand, if you know this person to be stable, sober, and well adjusted, they may very well be describing a genuine spiritual encounter.

Second, look at the actual experience. Is it consistent with the person’s existing beliefs? Is it consistent with experiences other people have had within the same belief system? Is this person clearly able to differentiate between this experience and the “real world,” or is the experience taking over their daily life? Answering these questions can help determine whether mental health intervention might be needed.

Finally, as a general rule, if you have an experience that scares you, makes you feel like you are in danger, or makes you feel compelled to hurt yourself or someone else, you should get a second opinion from a trained mental health professional.

As members of the witchcraft community, we have a responsibility to look out for other members of the community — and that includes being willing to say something if we believe someone genuinely needs medical help. Science and spirituality are not opposed, and they can coexist. Being a witch doesn’t mean rejecting science, and believing in science doesn’t mean rejecting magic. A healthy dose of skepticism goes a long way in keeping your magical practice safe, productive, and empowering.

Resources:

The Dream podcast, season two

New World Witchery podcast, “Episode 65 — The Slender Man Discussion”

Inside Schizophrenia podcast, “Psychosis in Schizophrenia”

The Savvy Psychologist podcast, “302 — Chemtrails, Aliens, and Illuminati — The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories”