Magickandcoffee - ℳ𝒶𝓎♡︎

Advice to witches and Pagans who wish to be allies

Here are some personal words of advice to those in the witch/Pagan communies who wish to be allies to witches and Pagans of colors/marginalized groups, sincerely from a Pagan witch who is a member of an ethnic minority.

Do Not:

Post/repost those lists of what are/are not cultural appropriation. Many of them are inaccurate and incorrect. Some of them are downright stereotypical and racist.

Use us as an excuse to attack people. Some people genuinely don't know better and mean no harm. Innocent mistakes happen. Publicly humiliating people and/or ruining their businesses doesn't help us at all. We've seen enough bullying in this world already without you adding more to it in our names. If you wish to educate someone on what you know/have learned from us, please at least do so in a tactful manner for a start.

Assume cultural appropriation at face value. Looks can be deceiving. The person who has a dreamcatcher hanging above their bed might have received it as a gift from a friend who's Native American. The person with a fresh henna tattoo might have just attended an Indian friend's wedding. The person who appears to have a light complexion might in fact, be a part of a closed culture and/or belong to a closed practice.

Take what you read on the internet as gospels. A handful of people whose online posts have gone viral might not actually represent the voice of the group from which they claim heritage. And guess what? People online can and do lie.

Support mass marketing that exploits native cultures for profits.

Go around preaching about a culture that you're not a part of. This includes what is/is not cultural appropriation from that culture.

Repeat what you've heard/think you know about a culture without having actually taken any time to talk with the people from that culture in real life or done any research to educate yourself about that culture.

Talk over us and speak for us. And this includes making the rounds on social media telling people what our cultures are/are not, what we allow/do not allow, what can/cannot be done with/from our cultures.

Do:

Listen to the native people of a culture. Take the time to get to know them. Spend time with them, if you can. And I don't mean on the internet. As much as possible, try to actually go places, explore different cultures, and learn by experiences.

Be a part of a culture's celebrations/special occasions if you're invited by the people of that culture.

Support local/small businesses run by ethnic minorities.

Appreciate different cultures. Enjoy and promote different cultures' arts, music, cuisine, and traditions in respectful manners. Celebrate diversities. Embrace differences.

Ask questions. If you're not sure about something, it's perfectly fine to just ask. Most of us are cool with sharing our thoughts on matters related to our cultures.

Understand that cultures are not monoliths. Even within a culture, there are going to be differences of opinions, across generations and geographical regions.

Actually be an ally instead of a mouthpiece. What we really want is for our voices to be heard and not drowned out. We would like to be able to speak our minds, without anyone talking over us, without anyone making it more about them than about us.

Energy Manipulation Guide: Sensing Energy

Hello lovely followers! Recently I’ve gotten an influx of questions about energy manipulation and decided to get around and do a manual about it. Disclaimer, these are all based on my experiences!

What is energy manipulation and why is it so important:

Energy manipulation is just what it sounds like. The manipulation of energy both in you and around you. It’s important because it is a fundamental key in the practice of magic. At its core, magic is energy. It becomes magic when it is manipulated by the castor, witch, or practitioners to do their bidding. 

The first part in this guide will deal with sensing energy. We won’t necessarily be manipulating it today. Sensing energy is perhaps the first step of actually working with energy, as you must sense it to be able to manipulate it. Here, i’ll be going through several different techniques. 

First and foremost, I want to go through a general technique that can be used for both meditations and centering yourself.  

Deep Breathing: 

This is simply a technique that combines both meditation and moving the energy around in your body. In my experience, I am drawing from both energy from the universe, and bringing it into my body, while also expelling negative energy within me. 

This is a simple way to get your energies moving while also cleansing yourself of negative energy. 

You will need to either sit up or lay down. let your palms lay upward, and close your eyes. 

Now, all you have to do is breathe.  As you inhale deeply, envision pure, golden light from the universe coming into your body. This is pure, cleansing energy, Energy that will help and cleanse you. Feel it going in through your nose, down your throat and into your lungs. Feel the warmth. 

On your exhale, envision dark energy leaving your body. This is negative energy, the energy that is weighing you down. These are your anxieties, stresses, and insecurities. Give them to the universe, and let the universe cleanse you. 

Focus on breathing in the energy, and breathing it out. Focus on your breathing. Occasionally you’ll have other thoughts, but that’s fine. Just gradually return to your breathing. 

The Hand Technique:

This technique will be good for those of us who are good at visualization. For beginners, i recommend you get into your deep breathing state. You don’t have to be in a deep meditative state, simply calm your mind, and prepare to focus on something. 

Step one: Sit down. If you have back trouble, then you can also do this laying down. All it requires is that your palms are upright. 

Step two: Hold your hand out forward, palm facing upward. If you have trouble supporting your arm for long periods of time like i do, simply let your elbow rest on your knee, the arm of your chair, etc. Allow your arm to be supported. 

Step three: Look at your arm. Really look at it. Find a focal point that you’ll allow your energy can stem from. When you find this place, I want you to imagine a stream of energy flowing from this focal point into your palm. Envision it like water dripping down your arms, and pooling into your palm.  After a while of doing this, you should either feel tingling, pressure, or warmth. Keep in mind, these are things that I felt, but usually, you can take any abnormal situation as a sign of energy being felt and moved. 

 The Crystal Technique: 

This technique is especially good for those of us who have trouble visualizing things. You will be using aid in order to do this technique, and while I suggest a gemstone, any living thing will suffice. 

 Find a gemstone of your choice. My go-to for high energy is typically smoky quartz and amethyst. After you have centered yourself (use the deep breathing technique), place the gemstone in your palm, and begin applying the deep breathing technique again. In this instance, you won’t have to visualize, just breath and feel the crystal in your hand. Be aware of its presence.  For some, you will begin to feel a tingling right away, or a warmth. The gemstone will typically give off its vibrations. 

If you’re having trouble feeling this, I would consider rubbing your hands together. This sounds funny, but it will get the energy in your hands working. 

*Typically, when I do this, I envision a swirl underneath the gemstone, like a whirlpool, and allow my energy to interact with the gemstones energy. 

*make sure the gemstone is cleansed, especially if it is clear quartz. I’ve done this technique before with one that wasn’t, and my arm was in pain for an hour. 

And that’s the basics of sensing energy, or how it was for me! Please share this around, and feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Next time I’ll be posting ways to actually manipulate energy. 

 Also, if you liked my content feel free to: 

Buy me a Ko-fi Cash APP:$woodlandbrey Venmo: @AubreyEK

hehe… tortoiseshell cat

Reblog if you are a safe person to talk to

You can message me or send me an anon anytime, ill listen! Even if you just want to come and talk about your life or your worries, ill be there.

just some d&d characters ive drawn ♡´･ᴗ･`♡

hopefully opening commissions at some point, but my pc no longer works so currently saving up for a laptop ☻︎

please do not repost without cred!

Simple Chicken Soup Recipe for a Kitchen Witch on a Budget

Because I love food and I'm also cheap. This is basically just my regular easy chicken soup recipe but with the magical associations included. It'll feed you for days.

The Long (But Tastier) Way

What You'll Need:

One of those discount whole chickens from the grocery store (my boyfriend calls it a "used chicken")

Whatever veggies in your kitchen are starting to look sad and need to be used before they go bad (I recommend having carrots and celery in that mix tho)

Some extra celery/carrots for the final product (can come from the Sads if you need... pick the healthiest-looking parts.)

Pasta of your choice (I like penne)

A stockpot and strainer (another big pot should work too, but stockpots are best for holding everything/making the most at once.)

Salt, pepper, preferably dill as well + whatever other seasonings you want.

What to Do:

Take your used chicken, strip all of the meat from it, and put the meat aside. Put the carcass in the pot.

Add all of your sad vegetables to the pot. No need to be fancy with it, no need to peel anything. Shop an old onion into 4ths and add it skins and all. Leaves can stay on any celery. Chuck in some garlic, why not. I've added an old sweet potato before. Leeks. Rosemary. Whatever. Go be free.

Add some salt + pepper, cover the entire thing with water, bring it to a boil and then immediately turn the heat to low. Cover it most of the way.

Go do something else. Forget about it for at least four hours. If you want, you can occasionally go up to it and skim any foam off. Everything is steeping and blending, so the longer it goes the better it gets. (Remember the water will cook down though, so don't leave it forever.)

Cook your pasta al dente and set it aside at some point.

Once you're ready, strain the broth into another vessel and discard your sad broth vegetables. Thank them for their service.

Put the broth back in the empty stockpot and bring to a boil. Chop your happy vegetables to whatever size you want to eat them at. Add any vegetables like chopped carrots that need to cook longer than other veggies. After a few minutes add the rest. Once everything is at a good level of This Won't Feel Weird to Eat, put it on way low again!

Add everything else. That means salt, pepper, dill (I like dill. Add too much dill.) seasoning powders, chicken meat, and cooked pasta. Steep it for a little so the broth flavor can soak in, but you don't have to do it for as long as before.

EAT IT! You have soup now! Yay! Eat a bowl now and save the rest for later. It'll last you a while. (Pasta will get bigger/softer over time but that's fine, it's still good.)

Faster Broth

Boil some water. Add chicken bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, dill/whatever seasonings, and a tiny splash of oil. The oil helps it look/feel more authentic without needing to steep the chicken carcass.

For even faster broth, you can even use boxed chicken stock and skip the bouillon. I find chicken broth tastes kinda different and gross, but it'll work in a pinch and you might not mind it as much as me.

Magical Associations

Naturally, whatever unique vegetables you add will have their own correspondences, so I'll just list the recommended base ingredients:

Chicken: Lasting love, household harmony, abundance, luck, prosperity and general well-being

Celery: Lust, mental/psychic abilities, clear-headedness/focus (especially for decision making)

Carrot: Lust again, abundance, creativity and psychic awareness

Dill: Luck, money/employment, protection, knowledge and decision making.

Chicken Soup Itself: Health and vitality is the big one (probably obviously.) It's basically folk penicillin. I think it also carries associations with love (especially familial) and household harmony for exactly this reason. Based on the other associations, I could also see it being good for helping make important decisions with a sound mind.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

i’ve been spending faaar too much time playing stardew valley, so here’s my farmer, Plum (❁´◡`❁)

make sure to eat something today! it's important to nourish your body! 🍓