Witch Tip: Pay Attention To Your Protection Magic

What do you use deadnettle for?

Mostly I use it for magic pertaining to happiness, growth, beauty, or opportunity. I also associate deadnettle with the ability to make proper use of available resources, so I sometimes add it to a spell if a little bit of flexibility, fortitude, or Making The Best Of Things is called for.

Purple deadnettle is an early spring flower, very popular with the bees, and it grows abundantly pretty much anywhere it can find loose damp soil. It turns my yard into an oasis of tiny bell-shaped wildflowers and happily bumbling bees long before the early summer clover begins to bloom. This sweet little flower was one of the first gifts my new home gave me and it helped kickstart the bond I'm developing with the land.

(Apparently, it's also edible, although I've never tried it.)

Pictured: A patch of purple deadnettle in my yard, with vetchweed and dandelion puffballs mixed in.

not gonna lie kudzu has shot up to the top of my list of favorite plants so fast. she's such a bad bitch.

Earth-Friendly Witchcraft

Whatever religious or spiritual tradition they identify with, most witches agree that there is something sacred about the natural world. We draw our power from the earth beneath our feet, the sky over our heads, and the air in our lungs.

And yet, many of us live in societies that are actively contributing to the destruction of the natural world. Most developed nations have a linear economy, which means resources are extracted and then sent on a one-way trip to consumers who will use them and then throw them away. This leads to overflowing landfills, air and water pollution, and quickly disappearing resources. The World Economic Forum predicts that, if our habits don’t change, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. And I dearly hope that by now we’re all familiar with the reality of climate change and its devastating impact on global ecosystems.

I’m not trying to scare you, but I do want to point out the hypocrisy of drawing power from the Earth in our magic while simultaneously contributing to her destruction. If we truly want to consider ourselves spiritual allies of the planet, we need to make an effort to live our lives — and practice our magic — in ways that are less harmful to her.

You don’t have to become an environmentalist or switch to a zero waste lifestyle, but we can all make little changes for a more sustainable life. There’s lots of information out there about how to live a more Earth-friendly lifestyle, so in this post I’ll be focusing on how to apply that same philosophy to your witchcraft.

Steps to a more Earth-Friendly Practice:

Limiting your consumption will automatically lower your negative impact on the planet. Follow my previous guidelines for avoiding consumerism to start shrinking your carbon footprint.

Avoid plastic as much as possible. According to the WEF, 70% of our plastic ends up in a landfill or in the world’s waterways, and according to Julia Watkins, author of Simply Living Well, only 9% of household plastics get recycled. Plastic (unlike glass and metal) cannot be recycled indefinitely — it can only be recycled a handful of times before it becomes too degraded to be repurposed any further. There really is no way to make plastic safer for the planet, so it’s best to just avoid it altogether. Look for tools made of metal, wood, or glass instead of plastics, and try to order things shipped in paper and cardboard when possible.

Create spells that won’t leave leftovers. One of the big contributing factors to our current environmental crisis is that we just produce too much waste. You can avoid this in your magical practice by crafting spells that won’t leave you throwing away a big ball of candle wax, herbs, and paper. Kitchen magic is a no-brainer for this, since kitchen spells are meant to be eaten. If you want to do a candle spell, use small candles that will burn up completely — I find larger candles are more likely to leave leftover wax. Making magical bath salts is another great option for leftover-free spells — just make sure everything you include is safe to go down the drain and won’t contribute to water pollution!

Forage for your own spell materials. One of the best ways to avoid plastic packaging and cut down on emissions from shipping is to use materials from your backyard! Learn about the plants, animals, and minerals native to your area, and take regular nature walks where you can gather what you need. Remember to only take as much as you need and to be careful never to damage the plants you harvest from. Make sure to carefully disinfect any animals bits you pick up — you can do this by burying them in salt for a full moon cycle and/or setting them in the sun/under a UV light for several days. If you find a dead animal and want to strip and clean its bones for use in ritual, this is a much more involved process and will require special research, equipment, and lots of time. And, of course, never eat anything you have foraged unless you happen to have an advanced degree in botany.

Keep a magical garden. Another great way to connect with the planet and shrink your carbon footprint is to grow your own herbs, vegetables, and fruits. You can, of course, grow food for your kitchen if you have space, but even if you live in a tiny apartment you can grow a handful of magical herbs in pots. For a list of common houseplants and their magical associations, check out this post.

Shop for spell materials at a local farmer’s market. Buying local is a great way to avoid the environmental impact of shipping produce, and it allows you to support small farms. Farmer’s markets also typically carry seasonal produce, which can help you align your magical practice with the cycles of nature. Farmer’s markets are a great way to find seasonal fruits and vegetables for kitchen magic, but you can use the produce you find there for other types of spells as well.

Trade paraffin wax candles for beeswax or soy wax. Paraffin, the material used for most cheap candles, is a by-product of crude oil, which is not only highly unsustainable but contains carcinogens (chemicals that may cause cancer). Beeswax is a sustainable alternative, and beeswax candles produce a “clean” burn, meaning it does not negatively affect air quality. Soy wax is a slightly pricier, vegan-friendly sustainable option that also produces a clean burn.

Use undyed, unbleached paper for your written spells. The bleaches and dyes used in most commercially available paper have a toxic effect on the environment. Colored paper cannot be recycled or composted because it will contaminate everything it touches. Use plain, unbleached paper for your written spells, especially if you plan to bury them in the ground or dispose of them outside.

Make sure your essential oils are ethically harvested. Essential oils are tricky — although they are marketed as natural, many of them are produced through unsustainable methods. Because essential oils are concentrated, it may take thousands of pounds of plants to produce a single pound of oil. This can have a devastating impact, especially for endangered plants like white sage or palo santo. Look for ethically-sourced, wild-harvested essential oils — these are oils that are gathered from the wild in ways that don’t hurt the local ecosystem. Mountain Rose Herbs and Eden’s Garden are two brands that are committed to sustainable essential oil production.

Instead of burying a spell in a jar, bury it in a hollowed-out fruit or vegetable. Many traditions call for spells to be buried in the ground. Items like jar spells and witch bottles are traditionally buried on the witch’s property. The problem with this is that plastic and glass bottles do not biodegrade, and will remain in the ground for years. Instead of putting these materials in the ground, bury your spells in a hollowed-out fruit or vegetable. As a bonus, you can choose this item to support your intention. For example, you might use an apple for a love spell or a spicy pepper for protection. Just make sure everything inside the spell is also biodegradable!

Keep a compost pile as an offering to your local land spirits. Compost is an easy way to reduce food waste, and it gives your garden a boost! Even if you don’t have your own garden, you can give your compost to a fiend who does or look into donating it to a community garden. When composting, it’s important to maintain a balance between carbon-rich “brown” ingredients (leaves, undyed paper, cardboard, etc.) and nitrogen-rich “greens” (fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc.) — you want about four times as much brown as green in your compost. Start your compost with a layer of brown — preferably twigs or straw to allow good airflow. Alternate layers of green and brown materials as you add to the pile. Every time you add to your compost, verbally express your gratitude to the land spirits. Your compost should be moist, but not soggy — you’ll know it’s ready when it’s dark and crumbly and smells like soil.

Make your own tea blends with loose herbs and a reusable tea strainer instead of buying teabags. Witches and tea go together like peanut butter and chocolate, but the individual wrappers on teabags create a lot of waste. On top of that, since many of these wrappers are dyed, they may not even be recyclable. Keep your teas earth-friendly by buying dried herbs in bulk and blending your own teas. Making your own blends is not only better for the planet, but also allows you to choose each ingredient for a specific magical intention.

Find ways to use your trash in your craft. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Instead of throwing things away, find ways to use them in your magic! Use food scraps from cooking, like carrot greens and potato peels, in spells. Turn an old shoe box into a travel altar. Add your coffee grounds to spells to ground them and manifest results in the physical world. You get the idea. Be creative!

Research different models for Earth-friendly living, like the zero waste/low waste lifestyle, sustainability, and the solarpunk movement. This will give you more ideas for a sustainable lifestyle, as well as a sustainable magical practice.

The funny thing about Earth-friendly living is that, the more time you spend taking care of the planet, the more connected you feel to it. I encourage you to try some of the ideas on this list — you’ll be amazed by how quickly you develop a deeper relationship with the Earth and all her creatures.

Resources:

Of Blood and Bones by Kate Freuler

Simply Living Well by Julia Watkins

“By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans, study says” from The Washington Post

A Sustainable Mind podcast

Practical(ly) Zero Waste podcast

Do you have any advice for how to strengthen ones spirit hearing, or is it just something you're born with/given?

I was not born with it. I did not have magical experiences until I was in my 20s.

I hope this doesn't sound pedantic, but the best way to improve is to practice and learn about it.

Learning about all different types of spiritual communication from many faiths is important because it provides a more stable and well-rounded foundation. Knowing what others believe can give us insight into what we're doing and how to strengthen our own practices.

And you just gotta practice. I've put in hundreds of hours of active practice (at least). I don't just mean like, trying psychic techniques. I mean just talking to spirits.

Witchcraft Exercises

Just a quick compilation of the posts I've made about exercises to help improve your craft. These can be used as journaling prompts, inspiration for activities, or as methods for pulling yourself out of a slump and recharging your witchy inspiration.

Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft

Witchcraft Exercise - Dig Through The Ditches

Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons

Witchcraft Exercise - Home Brews

Prompt - Music to Witch By

Most of these are also available in the May 2021 bonus episode of Hex Positive (check your favorite podcatcher).

Happy Witching!

Guardian Animal Shielding

I find this technique to be extremely comforting. It may be adapted to many models of magic, including psychological ones.

I find that this shield is better performed alone or when you can focus on it. It is more of an event than a practical utility.

TL;DR: Put yourself in a headspace where your favorite natural biome is all around you. Call a guardian animal. Spend time with the animal and thank it when you are done.

TIPS & TRICKS: Build a folder of gifs, video clips, photos, audio tracks, etc. that just take you to your favorite biome (perfect chance to create mood boards really).

You can perform this technique as a meditation, but also you can employ it as energetic shielding.

SHIELDING: Choose what biome you want to spend time in. You can be very specific (like choosing to be near a body of water, the time of day, the weather patterns, or the types of flora and fauna present) or you can be very general. Decide if you would like to call on a specific animal from that biome, or if you will call for any animal in general.

Draw energy up a shield around you in whatever method you prefer. I generally find it to be much easier to pattern the shield while you make it, instead of creating a white bubble and modifying it after the fact (e.g. if you create your shields by exhaling energy, exhale the biome itself).

Once your biome shield has been created to your satisfaction, consider spending time within it to feel it. This is a good opportunity to practice psychic senses. Try feeling, smelling, seeing, tasting, and hearing what is within the shield.

When you are ready, speak, think, sign, or indicate that you want an animal to join you in the biome. If you use words, they might be, "otter, come join me. I need a friend and a protector. Come sit with me in my shield." Or, "Mother Earth, I've called you to be around me. Now I ask you send an animal to protect me and be my companion at this time."

If you do not want to use words, you can pattern an animal into your shield using energy work techniques or any technique you prefer.

Try spending time feeling, smelling, seeing, (maybe not tasting), and hearing the animal. Try talking to it and watching its behavior.

You can go about your day and this biome and animal will travel with you. Reinforce it by adding more energy to it using whatever technique you prefer. When you are done, if you remember to do so, thank the animal for its company and ask it to return home.

MODIFICATIONS: If short on time, create the shield to include the animal automatically, instead of having to invite it.

You can invite the same animal over and over again, or invite a new one each time.

The guardian does not need to be an animal and the environment doesn't need to be a biome. Consider a heavenly shield and pearly gates with an angelic guardian, for example.

Especially if you call out for a general guardian, your actual guardians and guides may appear, even if they are unknown to you at this time. Especially watch out for specific beings that show up time and time again. (this technique was how I first met my primary spirit guardian, although I didn't know it at the time!)

This technique can be a form of divination and self-reflection. Let everything be very general, including the biome. Pattern your energy work to "bring forth the environment I need the most." Call for "the guardian I need the most." Observe what is created around you.

As stated above, this technique in general is excellent for practicing psychic sensing.

Once you have a protection amulet or two in hand, try this in a natural area. Pattern your shield to be the energy of that area. Call for a local benevolent spirit. See what happens.

For the witchy asks: 🌹🦄

witchy asks

8. (🌹) - what's something that isn't talked about enough in the witchcraft community?

I don't know if it's not talked about "enough," but I find it very curious how many witches who are also animists totally ignore inherent correspondences within nature.

Arguments about where correspondences come from and what they mean very often seem to focus totally on human decisions and desires.

I've always been under the impression that the fact that correspondences for a single thing often vary from culture to culture causes people to assume that humans make them all up.

There rarely ever seems to be an idea that oak trees in England are different fellows from oak trees in Ohio (pretending that the couple hundred of species of oak don't exist and it's all just One Guy), and that authentic connection to the tree will validly produce different correspondences in each area.

Or that spirits are as multifaceted as humans. As an individual, to some people I bring pain and injury, and to others I extend deep love and protection. But if an animal spirit does so, that means those two "correspondences" are incompatible, and therefore the human made them up and projected them.

Or that as humans, two of us may see the same facet of a spirit and we ourselves respond to it differently - so of course, there is nothing inherent in the herb, all that matters are our own reactions, and there is no meaning within the plant beyond our attitudes towards it.

Or that the individual spirit of a single plant is an individual, and is not a nameless hivemind pouring fourth an unwavering, set pattern of meaning and power.

Of course not everyone works with spirits, or is an animist. But for spirit-working witches who are animists, I often question why they speak of natural things as being meaningless until a human ascribes the meaning.

9. (🦄) - what's something that's talked about too much in the witchcraft community?

I'm not sure I can say. I haven't been back in a "big" community long enough to comment on it.

But you know what, let's go ahead with TikTok.

People talk about TikTok too much.

tips for adhd witches!

[[before you expand: LONG text post!!]]

I got diagnosed only a couple months ago, but I have been practicing witchcraft for a little bit now. So in retrospect, here is stuff that I realized I have been doing to cope the whole time, and some new things I'm tinkering with :) Please feel free to leave your own tips or thoughts!

At all costs, avoid promising gods and spirits that YOU WILL uphold a rigid routine.

Just do not promise to give daily offerings! JUST DON'T DO IT. If you struggle with upholding a regular routine, do not promise gods or spirits you will uphold a routine for them. You should only promise things you are confident you can deliver. ((If you identify as a beginner witch it's my personal belief that you should not be promising anyone anything.))

Delete from your mindset that all witches are supposed to uphold rigid routines.

Give yourself breathing room: if you want to give scheduled offerings, maybe do one on the full moon. Or, plan it to coincide with other activities that interest you, and that you're likely to show up for.

Unless you have a few hours a week to devote to your practice, you should probably not be dedicating yourself to doing daily anything.

Rigid routine is not the only way to get regular experience with magic, build relationships with gods or spirits, or improve in your craft! You simply do not have to promise yourself or anyone else that you will do X actions at Y times.

Instead of having "do X for Y minutes on Z days" routines, try developing a streamlined ritual you can fit in anywhere for the really important stuff.

Maybe there are some really important things in your practice that you want to do on a regular basis. Maybe these are things like:

Quick personal shielding

Acknowledging and honoring spirits

General offering

Prayer for guidance

Instead of saying "I'll do shielding for 5 minutes every day after breakfast, then of course my offering ritual-", you can put a streamlined (short, easy) ritual together where you do all four of these things at once.

Deep breaths, acknowledge and honor the spirits, ask for assistance in raising a shield, offering excess raised energy to them, and praying for guidance in the upcoming task.

It should take maybe like, 2 minutes tops.

Then, slot this streamlined ritual in before most practice activities. Like:

Before other energy work

Before divination

Before spellwork

Or, use it as a sort of 'generic' access point of connection and perform this ritual:

When you shower, to calm down from the day

When you're on transit to prepare for the upcoming day

When you're feeling grateful and want to share the moment with the spirits

When you're feeling sad and need support

Instead of forcing important actions into routines that may be hard to follow, find a way to carry these actions around with you in an accessible ritual, like carrying snacks around in a bag. This way you can use other exciting activities, or other life events, as a reminder to practice your ritual of important things :)

Build a clear system of omens for yourself. Omens can intrude on your daily life and get your attention.

Maybe you have alarm blindness, forget to do divination, forget to check in with spells - so asking for omens can be a huge help. They are spontaneous messages that catch your eye. Helpful!

Research cultural omens

Research omens in your magical tradition

Journal and brainstorm personal omens

Write out, for yourself, a short list of personal omens.

Solid black pigeons mean a spirit wants attention. Seeing your favorite tree species means a spell was successful. Three gray dots means a spell failed. The scent of cinnamon buns means fortune is headed your way.

Perform a ritual announcing your chosen omens to the Powers That Be. Invite those Powers, Yourself, Life, the Universe, and Everything to send you true, accurate, and helpful messages through these omens.

Working with omens in this way is a skill that evolves over time. Your personal omen system will evolve over time if you use it. Think of it as another form of divination!

(Tip: Combine symbols with colors for an advanced system that's easy to remember. Oak trees are prosperity, but black means slow movement, red means powerful, and white means failure. After a spell you see a plumbing truck with a red oak tree logo; powerful prosperity. Etc.)

Build all your spells, rituals, and everything with the foresight that you are probably going to forget about it or not return to it for a long time.

Employ foresight and:

Encode retirement/shutdown functions into your spells!! Do you want the spell to burn out completely and leave the vessel hollow so you don't have to deal with the vessel later on? Specify that! Do you want the spell to go to 'power saver mode' and hibernate so you can save the vessel and recharge it later? Specify!

ENCODE OMENS INTO SPELLS TO REMIND YOU TO TAKE ACTIONS! "This spell brings me financial benefit, and when it runs low, I will see my omen of slow growth - a solid black tree."

Assume that you are going to completely forget that you're able to take care of this problem, so encode the spells assuming you will never remember to deal with this again:

Spell for people that will remember they want to deal with Monica (they will also be working with wards, divination, and subtle cunning): "Stop Monica at the front desk from assaulting me with her dark energies, or else limit how much of her energy can reach me."

Spell for people that are going to completely forget this is an issue they can take care of and won't do another spell on it for maybe 18 months: "Stop Monica from assaulting me with her dark energies, or reveal to everyone in the office her dark nature, but if neither of these things is possible, change something in the office so that we never interact again."

Assume you will forget about individual spells, that you will accumulate way to many spells than you can individually attend to, and that you may never take final steps like cleansing and deconstructing old spell vessels.

Build a spellcasting altar, or a spell recharging altar, where you store up all your vessels. Recharge them all at once, as often as you remember to.

Poor plan: "And when this vessel runs down I will recharge it with the waxing moon as I stand under the orange tree-" More tenable plan: "And when this vessel runs down let it drink energy from my altar; let it take up any energy that suits it; let it feed on what is available to it, according to its needs."

Focus on learning how to tie spells to external energy sources so they will stay charged for way longer.

For easy deconstruction, set blanket conditions for every vessel that it be undone and the magic erased if you take a simple action. This is called a kill code. You bake it into spells and it makes deconstruction way easier.

Try developing a barbarous word of undoing and using it every time you want to undo a vessel or a spell; this word will gain power and can become very helpful in other ways.

Once again, plan spells with the foresight that it will be difficult/unlikely for you to re-engage for formal deconstruction procedures. So, anticipate your future needs during spellcasting: "And if I ever open this jar and take out the things inside it, let this spell be released and return to the earth, let it fade away without trouble and nourish anything around it as fallen logs nourish the forest floor." This way, you know that if you accidentally forget about a spell or just take it apart, the magic already has instructions to safely dissipate and you don't have to worry.

Develop a visual language to remind you of what collected objects and spell vessels are.

This folds in real nice with a personal omen system!!

Use a combination of colors, established symbols (planetary, alchemical), and personal symbols to develop a visual conlang that helps you keep track of what things are.

If applicable, decorate or modify spell vessels so you can tell at a glance what the spell is for (violet symbol of Venus next to a paw: a spell to improve relationships with the spirits that help you with psychism)

Build a system that makes intuitive sense to you, perhaps folding in with your color correspondence associations, magical headcannon, or any other mnemonic device:

All the spells in jars are protective

Everything that's tied into a witch's ladder is about prosperity

If it has a red X on it, that's a hex

If it has a 7-pointed star, it involves your dragon guide

If you store it in a bag that has blue on it (blue print, blue button, blue tie-string) then that object is related to cleansing

Your personal visual language will gain its own power over time if used regularly, in the way that egrigores or sigils can gain power if used consistently over time :) It can become a real magical tool, not just a mnemonic device!

During spirit work, just clearly communicate that your sporadic presence has nothing to do with your dedication 🤷

When you conjure/talk to/pray to gods, spirits, or anything, address the fact that your communication/rituals/etc ARE going to be sporadic. Explain yourself and ask the spirits to extend understanding.

Some spirits/gods/etc are going to demand regular routine. AND IF THEY EXPECT THAT, then you guys need to get on the same page ASAP as to whether or not that's possible.

Spirits can be incredibly forgiving and understanding, but unless you tell them why you are sometimes around and sometimes not, they do not necessarily know what's going on.

Your spirit guide may have not read the DSM-5. Obelon the Fox-Man might not be up-to-date with the 2025 diagnosis criteria for ADHD, and Obelon might not recognize that you are struggling with a disorder that can mimic inattentiveness. Obelon might be asking why you appear to be so enthusiastic, and yet only call for him once every 5 weeks.

Just explain!! Explain what you are comfortable explaining. Give them reassurances and ask them to not misinterpret your ability to be present.

At all costs, avoid making your path a carrot that you dangle in front of yourself to try and force yourself to fix your brain through sheer force of will.

If the way you talk to yourself about your path sounds like someone struggling with unhealthy dieting, maybe it's time to readjust.

"I just need to do my daily offerings, on schedule, for two weeks. Then I will have earned researching tarot spells."

Maybe it's not a good idea to intentionally include witchcraft in a cycle of reward and denial that will ultimately drain joy from the process until your passion is a withered husk.

Witchcraft isn't going to force your brain to change any more than Stardew Valley was going to force your brain to change. Or that time you got super into succulents. If your time spent studying wool quality in heritage European sheep breeds didn't cure your disorder, witchcraft won't either.

Witchcraft, I think, deserves to be something that is a part of your joy - not a part of a system of stressful attempts at making yourself into someone you're not because "real witches" all do such-and-such routine (I assure you, they do not) so you must force yourself to do it too.

(Incidentally, if you have a 'streamlined ritual for the important stuff' and it becomes a barrier that prevents you from practicing, then maybe that's not a good idea for you - or maybe it's not as simple and streamlined as you need it to be)

STOP trying to build a static path. Lean into temporary hyperfixations.

There is SO MUCH to learn in witchcraft. It's never-ending. The more you learn, the more doorways open for you with more things to learn behind them.

This is not college, you do not have to declare your major. You don't have to wait to decide on your 'magic specialization' before you start learning.

This is not college, you don't have to take semesters of boring general ed classes before you're allowed to start studying what interests you.

Unless you are getting into very serious initiations, learning stuff, advancing your skills, and building your path is not going to shut doors and prevent you from getting into something else.

If something excites your interests, GET INTO IT! Don't force yourself to ignore what you're passionate about because you think serious, responsible witchcraft is supposed to be rigid, boring, and tedious. (It isn't!)

Avoid declaring your major. As in, maybe the idea of energy glamours is super exciting, so on day 1 you create a lesson plan that will realistically take you 70 weeks to complete. Based on your history, is it reasonable that you will maintain this specific interest in glamours for over a year?

Avoid making lesson plans that intentionally slow you down and make shit boring for no good reason. If energy glamours interest you, are you (*scrolls up*) using energy glamours as a carrot to force yourself to engage in a tedious magical workout routine? Is the reason the lesson plan takes 70 weeks because you decided to spend weeks slowly moving through each phase so you have time to spam energy work exercises?

You know yourself better than I know you. Maybe wanting to slow down and engage in your focuses in a new way is the goal. Of course, listen to yourself first!

But if you have a temporary burst of energy and focus to learn a new skill, and learning that skill won't require you to make unhealthy personal or financial decisions, why not just lean into it and explore it moment by moment, wherever your interests take you?

I think you'd probably learn a lot more doing and undoing 20 glamours in a week, because you're freaking out about how fucking cool it is, than if you practice 1 basic glamor exercise once a day because that's what real disciplined witches do, and then 11 days later you forget it once and never do it again and now your interest has faded because glamouring is just another boring chore.

Invest some time and energy into figuring out exactly what your bare minimum of responsibility and upkeep actually is.

How often do you need to recharge your wards to keep them functioning normally?

Once you've explained your own needs and limits, how often do your spirits actually request offerings?

Are you 100% sure the spirits you're working with expect offerings in the first place?

Are those offerings expected to be physical, or do thoughts and prayers suffice?

How often should you perform a personal cleansing to keep yourself feeling magically refreshed?

Feeling anxious or guilty over whether or not you're supposed to be taking certain actions is NO FUN.

It is much less fun if you don't actually know how often you need to do these things. Then it's just all guessing, all the time, and nothing is ever good enough.

If at all possible, avoid putting yourself into a situation where you feel that you are supposed to be doing something responsible in your practice, but you're never sure exactly what it is.

Spend some practice time, learn some skills, and make notes, to discover whether or not you do have any minimum engagement requirements in the style of practice you want. And most importantly, having clear 'deadlines' so you don't have to keep guessing at what you're forgetting about this time.

Witch tip:

Winter season is upon us, which means that these types of candle holders in the shape of a tiny house will be sold as Christmas decoration again. These are amazing as home wards, to bring warmth and joy to the home, and for protection spells!

- Paint protective symbols on them or in them - charge the tealight you put in there with protection magic or magic for a happy home - choose tealights (or make them) with scents that you associate with protection or cozyness/happiness - lay a wreath around it as a symbol of your protective ward, for example a small wreath made of rosemary, or a plain metal (iron) one - you could even lay a circle of salt around it - charge the candle to become your hearth, the basis of all magics to be worked for the home - also good for working with hearth deities such as Hestia - also can be used as a house for a servitor created to protect the home - paint it in happy colours to attract joy and happiness to your home - instead of a candle, fill it with herbs, crystals, and other symbols to attract magic into your home (sort of like an open spelljar or an altar) - use it as a focus when working with the "spirit" or "soul" of your home - charge it specifically to eliminate strife and negativity within the home during the holidays

The possibilities are endless!

On Purple Dead Nettle

My new plant-love of this Spring season is the unassuming (and yet striking beautiful) Lamium purpureum, aka Purple Dead Nettle.   This wild forageable is considered a “weed” in many yards and gardens and yet has great medicinal, edible, and magical properties.  What more is there to love? I first noticed purple dead nettle after seeing it on a Youtube channel - it turns out, it was growing in my neighborhood all along and I had been oblivious! Purple Dead Nettles (Also sometimes called Purple Archangel) is found around the world.  In warmer areas, it is a annual Winter weed that provides much needed ground cover - here in Southern New England it is a early Spring flower that blooms for about six weeks starting in mid April.   It is highly distinguishable by its square stem (proving its membership to the mint family) and distinct red/purple leaves.  It can grow up to 8-10 inches tall but generally prefers to stick close to the ground. It is a super food - all parts of the plant are edible though its leaves are fuzzy so it can be a strange experience to eat it on its own.  It can be added to salads, used as an edible garnish, made into pesto, or added as a green to smoothies.   It’s flavor is green and reminiscent of grass or clover. Medicinally, it is an astringent, diaphoretic, and purgative.   It has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties.  It’s leaves can be made into a salve or applied directly for on-the-go wound care.   Consumption slows the production of histamines so it has a claim to fame as a plant used to treat seasonal allergies.   It can be dried and drunk as a tea but can have a laxative effect if consumed in quantity.   It is also listed as unsafe for pregnant and breast feeding humans. On of the best quality of this wonder-plant, in my opinion, is that it is one of the earliest bee friendly flowers that blooms in the colder climates.  Bees and other native pollinators seem to prefer Purple Dead Nettle to other plants.  Yet another reason not the mow this lovely plant down and let it thrive!

Magically it is associated with happiness and cheerfulness and considered useful for grounding when combined with yarrow.   Like all hearty plants that will grow “anywhere” it also has an association with strength and resiliency.  For magical purposes, dead nettle is most often dried and turned into an incense blend or tea (see the above mentioned warning about drinking too much of it.) Last but not least, I wanted to share a fun fact.  The Latin name for Purple Dead Nettle (lamium purpurium) means “diminutive purple monster” - a nickname given to the plant that spread out of control.   Laugh all you want but be careful where you plant it if you don’t want a yard FULL of dead nettle.  But for real - who wouldn’t want a yard full of dead nettle?  Certainly not me… Like my work?  Please consider supporting me by Buying Me of Ko-Fi.