Localizing Your Practice

So much witchcraft emphasizes how important it is to honor and work with the Earth, but then teaches us spells with ingredients we basically have to import using locations we don’t have access to. It’s rare to find an existing grimoire or guide book that actually works with where we live. We can still use them, but it doesn’t enhance our connection to our local land, which to many can feel important. Here are some tips for localizing your practice and working with the land you actually live on.

See what nature exists around you. Explore your own backyard with a critical eye. What plants can you actually go and pick yourself? What are those plants associated with? Do you have access to a creek or river? What does your local land actually have on it? If magic correspondences for your local plants haven’t been written about, you may have to do your own research. Example: I grow several plants on my back porch which I can potentially use for magic.There are magnolia trees and rhodedendrons on the grounds of my apartment complex. My parent’s neighbors have chickens in the backyard, so I have access to some feathers when they shed.

Check out local folklore, legends, etc. This is one of my favorite parts, but can also be the hardest. What are the stories of your area, both on a local and cultural scale. Example: A West Virginian may incorporate legends of the Mothman. Everyone says that one building on my old college campus is haunted (and they’re right.) People talk about that liminal-space feeling when you drive down that one road at night.

Find the magic spots. Sometimes the urban legends will tip you off to these (usually in a bad way) but other times you can find them on your own. A place where the energy is just right for some reason. A place you can go to be closer to nature, or a place you could host a ritual if needed. Sometimes it’s just a place where you can feel your mind open a little bit. Example: The shady corner of a public park. The tunnel downtown. That weirdly-perfect circle of trees in the woods behind Wal-Mart.

Meet your land wights. Spirits of the local land. This could be the fair folk, but also house spirits, the spirits of the trees near you, the nature spirits of wherever you are. They’re there. Be good to them and they’ll be good to you! Note: Some spirits and wights will not be interested in working with you, and that’s okay. I generally think it’s good to at least leave a polite offering to just be on general decent terms even if you never work with them more directly beyond that.

Check in with your Seasons. Harvest holidays generally don’t have actual lifestyle importance to most people reading this. The seasonal shifts other people write about may be from a very different climate than yours! Figure out a calendar that works for you. It doesn’t have to be detailed, but something that ties you to the seasons as you actually experience them. I also love working in any fun annual festivals nearby, if any.

The Herbs of Saint John

Before sunrise this morning I went out and took part in my first bit of French-Canadian folk magic (ie Sorcellerie). Since I’m really bad at timing things properly and planning ahead it was a little haphazard but overall I’m proud of myself for connecting with my ancestry.

I’ll provide links below but the quick and easy rundown is this: herbs are most magically potent on Saint John’s Eve and must be gathered between midnight and sunrise on Saint John’s feast day (June 24th). The herbs vary from place to place except for Mugwort (which sadly I haven’t found near my home), but I did find that yarrow grows in my yard which I find very exciting. The herbs must also be protected from sunlight for 24 hours before being dried and stored/used. If any of the herbs I’ve gathered this year remain by next Saint John’s Eve they must be discarded because they will have lost all power.

As I said before I harvested Yarrow from my yard but I was also able to gather some Bittersweet Nightshade, which for me has a special connection to The Great Earth-Indweller.

I added some Fayerieism flare to the gathering by performing a Plant Swaying Charm over both plants that I harvested from.

Blessings to you all

Courir le loup-garou

Les herbes de la Saint-Jean

English will follow Publié originellement dans Wyntergrene edition Beltane 2019 Par Morrigane Feu et Erik Lacharity, collaboration spéciale

Courir le loup-garou

Les herbes de Saint-Jean

À la fin de la semaine prochaine aura lieu un des moments les plus importants en Sorcellerie, peut-être même le plus important: la nuit de l

*the lighting is my porch light*

Some UPG, as a treat…

So angels (or the beings we refer to as angels) are the architects of creation. By their very nature they form reality out of the limitless potentiality. They form energy into matter, the take chaos and make it into order. This is instinctual and unconscious. They do it because it is what they are.

Daemons are the opposite of this. They are beings of decay and rot. I think of them almost like mushrooms. They thrive on and help speed up the entropy of reality. Matter to energy, order to chaos, again this is just what they are.

This is not a case of right it wrong, benevolence or malice. They are simply two ends on the spectrum of reality. They do not oppose each other as enemies but simply as opposites, doing their part in the grand scheme of things.

Tags

angel witchcraft paganism spirit work daemon traditional witchcraft UPG

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saintedsorcery

3 years ago

Covet this.

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saintedsorcery

3 years ago

slavic folk charm that I have twofold love for: if a young girl desires to have long, strong and thick hair, she should go into the forest or go into the field, and among the rocks find snake’s shedded skin - take it, and boil it, and with that concoction wash her hair.

but beware, as her hair shall truly be like a snake - and should she forget to be cautious, it will coil around her neck and choke out her last young breath.

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saintedsorcery

3 years ago

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saintedsorcery

4 years ago

My friend sent me this today and I thought it was very important to share for all my fellow Viking/Norse mythology lovers. Daily reminder: fuck white supremacy.

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saintedsorcery

2 years ago