Happy New Moon! This New Moon I Wanted To Reflect On The Divine Genders And Our Relationship To Them.

Imbolc is very near!

February 1, 2022 to February 2, 2022

What is Imbolc?

It is the start of Spring, which is a season of magical energy associated with the goddess’s feminine side, new beginnings, and fire. It’s a fantastic time to concentrate on divination and honing your own magical skills. Use these ideas to your advantage and arrange your work accordingly.

How do I celebrate Imbolc in a simple way?

1. Visit a stream, river, or water 

Imbolc was traditionally a time for pilgrimages to holy water, such as a spring or a well, to purify ourselves and bring fertility to our dreams. Why not go on a family excursion to find some water near your home, such as a river, stream, or well? Splash some water on yourself if the water is pure, and establish your goal to cleanse and purify. To deliver messages of hope and healing, Glennie Kindred suggests dipping a piece of ribbon in water and then hanging it from a nearby tree (trees near water are especially sacred). She also urges us to express gratitude to the spirits of the places we visit by picking up any trash we notice nearby. (greekparent.co.uk)

2. Drink milk or spiced cider

Milk or spiced cider are good options. Set a beautiful supper table with candles, evergreen boughs, spring flowers, dragons, sun symbols, or anything else that speaks to you about Imbolc. Make use of the fine china. Allow your children to make their beds in a unique fashion to resemble Brigid’s.

3. Decorate your altar

Because Imbolc’s energy is about creating plans but not yet acting on them, letting go of old energy that no longer serves you is a crucial step to take. You can begin by emotionally clearing your altar (and your entire home if you feel the need!) as well as physically cleaning it. Wipe it down with Florida Water before replacing the towel and sweeping the sluggish energy away with a besom.

Adding a bunch of candles to your altar for Imbolc is a simple way to change it up! These are meant to welcome the light and pay homage to the goddess. Red candles can be used to further portray the fire element. Fire and the hearth are also represented by cauldrons.

A specially customized Pender Ward, created using Lodestone beads and beads shaped from the wood of the client's oath-bound Tree familiar.

The Eight Sabbats and The Wheel of the Year: My Digital Grimoire Series

*these are my notes, please do not repost as your own!*

Book of Shadows Ideas that Aren’t Basic

A local specific myth, cryptid, or legend

An obscure historical witch or an old historical spell

A map of your neighborhood with locations that appear ghostly or have interesting energy

Your personal associations to colors, plants to supplement traditional correspondence charts

A chart detailing information of spirits you have communed with

A guide to sailor knots for knot magick

Sustainable and eco friendly lifestyle tips

Magickal practices around the world

Obscure magickal tools or tools you invented

Varying viewpoints in magickal philosophy and technique

The Use of Hornets and Wasps in Witchcraft

Image Credit: Alclear Pest Control

I’m sorry for my absence my lovelies! It’s been a difficult few weeks for me recently, because I’ve been trying to cope with exams, then the end of classes, and then constant exposure to an abusive family member, all whilst struggling with significant depression. However, I’m pushing on through, and one of the things that’s getting me through is thinking about new things to post on!

A note about the ethics of animal part usage

Insects parts are a very traditional element of witchcraft, and they are much more ethical than any other animal parts because (like bivalve and gastropod molluscs), arthropods do not have a brain capable of supporting consciousness. Killing hornets for your craft, then, is an ethically safe thing to do. However, killing animals that are capable of consciousness exclusively for the reasons of Craft is disputed by many witches from different traditions and is usually considered to be unacceptable. Please don’t take this post to be in support of killing conscious animals for usage in Craft activities – I am personally strongly against pointless slaughter, including sport-hunting and sport-fishing.

Witchy Uses for Hornets and Wasps

Curses that involve pain and fear – Any curse that has pain or fear as a major component of its magick (either because it’s what you want to cause, or it’s what you want to get justice for) would be greatly enhanced by the addition of dried and crushed wasps or hornets.

Curses that involve falling afoul of spies, infiltrators, or deceivers – Wasps and hornets are most infamous in apiculture (beekeeping) for their tendency to enter into a beehive and kill every single bee inside, completely destroying a colony in a matter of hours or days. They do this by camouflaging their scent, and then sneaking into the hive round a back entrance. Once inside, they will kill everything in their path to achieve their goals. Any spell that involves either retribution for those that have done this, or hope to invite these kinds of people into someone’s life, would do well to have crushed or whole hornet or wasp nest in them.

Curses that involve projects or structures going wrong – Wasps and hornets are also well known for causing colony collapses. Using dried and crushed hornets and wasps in your spellwork can be very effective in causing organisations, projects, or communities to break apart, or again to get retribution against those who performed these actions. Most effective against organisations with power that’s highly consolidated in one person, like in a beehive.

Any spell focused around matriarchal or feminine-specific social structures – Using wasp or hornet nest in your spell can (if you properly cleanse it with salt and smoke to remove negative inclinations) help boost spells that are focused around matriarchal social orders. This is also true with ant nest and honeycomb pieces, though honeycomb is the best of the options.

Any spell focused on people who leech things off of others – Hornets and wasps don’t work for their food like bees or ants do, but prefer to target those who work hard and steal or leech off of them. Any spell that’s aimed at human leeches, mooches and other human parasites can be increase with the addition of crushed wasps and hornets. Parasitic creatures like actual leeches, mosquitoes and ticks are better, but less readily obtainable in some areas.

Spells that involve wasps! – You’d be surprised how non-obvious this is to some people, but yes, if you want your spell to literally involve wasps or hornets, it would be a good idea to include one or two in your spell!

I hope this is of use to all you lovely witches out there!

– Juniper Wildwalk

Shoutout to the breakers of generational curses.

UPDATE: Patches are up for grabs now! Limited run!

https://tagtaylorsit.bigcartel.com/product/the-cycle-ends-here-patch-preorder

__________________

Update: 11/23 WOW. Firstly, I’m totally overwhelmed and honored by the response this piece has gotten. Seeing it resonate with so many people has sincerely moved me. I’m so incredibly happy that it means different things to different people.

A couple people have sent me messages asking if they could have my blessing to get the Ouroboros tattoo’d on them.

The short answer to that is- absolutely. I would be honored. If you do so please tag me! I would love to see the final product=^} this is a very personal piece to me and I hope to get it on myself soon.

However; I am apprenticing to become a tattoo artist myself and while there is absolutely no pressure, I would greatly appreciate anyone using the design as a tattoo to consider donating to my donate links any small tip they could spare to help support my art as I pursue this career. It’s really tough now doing unpaid work during the pandemic and It would really help me since I can’t afford to currently reproduce any designs. (Donate: www.paypal.com/paypalme/Tagtaylorsit) again, absolutely no pressure. I know times are tough.

If you feel inspired by the Ouroboros and would like to do your own artwork that is totally fine, who am I to stop another artist from expressing themselves? If you would like to draw this particular design on something (someone talked about painting it on their jacket, which I thought was really cool) I am cool with that as well. However; I would like to produce a small run of patches or pins of this design so I do ask that you refrain from selling products using my art.

If everyone who got this tattoo’d on them gave me 10 bucks, I’d be able for afford a proper tattoo machine, which would greatly help me during this apprenticeship.

=^) I love reading everyone’s stories about how they are ending toxic cycles in different forms in their lives and support all of you in your battles. Thank you all so much.

Salted Rose and Honey Pie

things i love about bees part 2:

🐝 when they groom each other AGH my heart💖💖💖💖

🐝 the lil bouncers that make sure ur not a robber bee from a different hive before ur allowed to go back inside

🐝 the surprising frequency of which they land on each other or summersault or trip when they land on the entrance of the hive

🐝 how stubborn they are trying to build comb where they’re not supposed to, even when we provide them comb to draw out

🐝 how sweet my bees are, we’ve had them for like two years and only one has ever even tried to sting me

🐝 even when my dad and i helped move africanized bees out of their makeshift hive and into a box they didn’t sting us

🐝 they actually gathered in huuuge clumps on us, they all loved my dad especially, but still didn’t sting us

🐝 how confused they get if you move their hive like. five feet away. it takes like half an hour for them to stop looking for their hive in the crack in a wall and turn around to see we just moved it

🐝 how they look when they fly in clouds. i wish i could run my hand through and scoop them all up

🐝 the way queens measure the cells with their legs to figure out which egg to lay

🐝 the fact that she can lay either gender egg at will that’s wild !! her reproductive system is incredible !!

🐝 getting to see the queen during an inspection

🐝 when you break off brace or burr comb between boxes of the hive and suddenly every single bee is there to clean it up

🐝 when you notice a bee on the sidewalk and get to move her somewhere safe or warm her up so she can go back home

🐝 different colors of bees !! i saw a bee in my hive that was so dark she hardly had stripes at all, it was crazy !!!

🐝 when they have that bright orange pollen that looks like cheeto dust

🐝 bee space in the comb where they crawl through, it’s so cute to think of them having little hallways

🐝 their👏honey👏is👏to👏die👏for👏

🐝 how beekeepers talk about their africanized hives as “hot hives” so it’s not such a trigger word, it’s kinda affectionate

🐝 selfless beekeeping where absolutely anyone will pick up africanized bees that moved in near your house, just to keep them from being exterminated (and then the beekeeper requeens them and turns them “domesticated” !!)

🐝 how well they manage their temperatures not only for brood but for the honey, as well

🐝 how dramatic the fight between two queens in one hive is, it’s extremely extra

🐝 one time i saw a camo beekeeping suit online and a question on the listing was “how do the bees like the camo?”. the response was “it put the fear of god in them”.

🐝 how bees know when to bail (i’ve had one attacked by bears and one almost down to colony collapse disorder and they both bailed to preserve themselves)

🐝 bees even know when to take breaks !! they’re programmed to be as efficient as possible and that includes breaks !!!!! they wander around the hive chillin because otherwise you would work yourself to death ! take that, overwork-centric american culture !!

🐝 ultimate structure for comb !! most efficient with least wax !

🐝 as a keeper, figuring out what a good brood pattern is and being able to recognize it

🐝 the way they make wax !!!!!!! is so weird !!!!!!!!! it’s so weird !!!!!!!!!! but it’s amazing !!!!!!

🐝 little mouth that multitasks. eat honey to save for later ? check. make hardened wax workable ? check. feed the babies ? check. bite varroa mites ? check.

🐝 someone’s working on breeding bees that are not only more resistant to varroa, but that have higher and higher tendencies to bite and kill them !!!!! that’s so good and exciting !!!!!!

🐝 when i finally got the hang of the perfect structure for the smoker !! (the secret is the berries/pine needles in the bottom, then some newspaper, then more berries over that, and you light the newspaper

🐝 seeing any bee any time at all. i can have the worst day ever but if i saw a bee at least it wasn’t a total loss !!

🐝 i love how sweet most bees are. even when they’re confused or scared i’ve scooped them up and helped them somewhere safe and they’ve never stung me for it

Confusion and misdirection spell jar 

Many people will do tarot readings on you, whether you know about them or not. So lets throw off some salty hoes and confuse the ever loving fuck out of them! This spell is similar to a decoy jar, and it is used to create confusion and misdirection in any sort of divination that is being done about you without your consent. 

What you will need: 

Jar or container of choice

Yarrow - Banishing  (properties : banishing, death, courage, psychic powers)

cloves: banishes hostility/negativity, used for protection.

black peppercorn: banishing negativity, protection from evil. 

Paper with sigils correlating to your intention

Some sort of reflective object to bounce the reading off of you

Teeth for defense 

Any sort of baneful ingredients you enjoy to give them a little punishment for trying to divine about you 

Black salt(regular works fine) to protect you from prying eyes. 

Process

Cleanse your jar with your preferred method 

Fill it with the physical ingredients 

Write on a piece of paper, or say this out loud whichever you prefer

“Curiosity will kill the cat and no amount of satisfaction can bring it back. Anyone who tries to divine me in hopes of an upper hand will get back only nonsense and a prick back. Your tarot will turn against you, your bones will break, your runes will never fall into place. Your scrying and divination will only show your own ugliness. May this spell confuse and blind those who wish to spy on me

Write your sigils on the back of this paper, activate it by dabbing oil onto it, i used yarrow oil 

Seal your jar with black wax and string