Nathan J. Anderson On Instagram

Here’s my contribution to the #regionalwitchcraftchallenge started by Via Hedera

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So I wasn’t sure if I should have taken part in this because #Maine doesn’t really have anything (that I know of) that is specific to the region.

To make up for that, I try to incorporate as much of the local flora, fauna, and landscape as I can.

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-Maine black bear skull, gifted from a local hunter

-Novena candle (one side of my family is Catholic and that has started to influence my craft)

-Locally harvested cedar

-Two keepsakes of my departed grandparents

-Birch Water (à la “An Carow Gwyn”) with bark harvest from my property

-An antique rosary found while thrifting

-A hag stone from the coast of Maine

-Selected bones from my casting kit that are all local animals (red fox, coyote, beaver, bobcat)

-An arrowhead from our state museum

-Ritual blade made from white-tail deer

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‘Mercury’ ‘Saturnia’ ‘I am Adonai’ ‘Spirit Forest III’ art by C. M. Kosemen

Of Toads and Toxins

Warning: This post is super rambley and I’m sorry

(Shout out to Courir le loup-garou for being an amazing resource)

Three things have been on my mind a lot lately: ancestors, malefica, and the toad. So imagine my happiness and surprise when reading a blog post about Toads in French-Canadian folklore/folk magic being poisoners.

Since discovering French-Canadian sorcellerie via courir le loup-garou I have been trying to incorporate parts of it into my practice as a way of connecting with my Québécois roots. I’ve even recently found a language learning app that offers Canadian French/Québécois so I plan on learning the language as a way to further connect. Very very exciting!

I’ve also been slowly getting into using poisons more in my practice, specifically working with the plants spirits as allies and less working directly with them in herbal preparations. I’ve been particularly drawn to mandrake and foxglove. Foxglove specifically for its link to the fayerie folk so it makes sense to work with as someone who follows Fayerie Traditionalism.

~(I blame Coby of The Poisoner’s Apothecary for the poison path focus lol)~

In connection to the poison path is malefic magic. The idea of the witch as a poisoner, a blighter of crops, a caster of curses. Not that I’m someone who wants to just throw hexes around like they’re nothing but I’m more interested in studying them and researching how they operate magically.

The toad spirit has been one that has floated in and out of my craft for YEARS never fully leaving but not always being of high importance. I think that’s really because I’ve never figured out how to work with this spirit in a way that makes sense to my and my craft. Reading the blog on toads in French-Canadian folklore has given me some possible inspiration. I’m hoping to commune with the spirit of Toad to learn more of cursing and malefica and to employ my toad imp to carry out any curses or hexes that I may weave.

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Burning man, Tomasz Kawecki

Heart Girt with a Serpent Talon Abraxas

I carved a Sutekh icon for my altar from the same blackthorn branch that I carved Eris. He is stained with an 18-year-old red wine bequeathed to me by a dead bus driver (praise be to Albert! May he live forever!), blackberry and fig liqueurs, and icon. The black stain is part char from my stove, and part a mixture of ritual ash and Stuart Semple's Black 2.0. The gold is ol' Stuart's goldest gold, which I can't recommend enough really, and gold leaf. The red is a crimson alcohol ink I bought last year and immediately forgot I had. Turns out, it stains unsealed wood really well, and can be blended out with neat isopropyl alcohol on a paintbrush. This would ordinarily make me worry about drying out the wood, but beeswax and neem oil solves all problems.

SHOP / KO-FI / PATREON / INSTAGRAM

Oh mirror of the otherworld to what depth do you call.

Far beyond the threshold yet not that far at all.

Oh mirror of the otherworld to what visions do you see.

Stars that shine like diamonds in the blackness of the sea.

Thrjár by Maéna Paillet