Banshee Blog

Aos sí aesthetics and pictures of women, mostly with white or gray hair (mostly Sarah Marie Karda, tbh)

[stormbornwitch]

"Let your craft be like a tree, firmly rooted in the old, but stretching into the new. Get your hands dirty, and find out what works and what doesn't work for you."

- Roger J Horne's Folk Witchcraft: A Guide to Lore, Land & the Familiar Spirit for the Solitary Practitioner

[breelandwalker]

Fairy Tale Spells by Bree NicGarran

Fairy tales have always been with us. Apart from teaching moral lessons and practical cautions, they remain a source of wonder and inspiration that persists even in a modern age dominated by technology.

There is magic in these tales as well - spells and charms that aid the worthy and conquer obstacles, heal the ailing and bring wealth to the poor, thwart the wicked and exact terrible revenge, or grant someone their hearts' desire and make their dearest wishes come true.

I have created over a hundred such spells, inspired by the tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm and the folklore collected by Andrew Lang. One volume was published back in 2017 and another is forthcoming. If you're curious (and maybe a little bit daring), here are some previews of the spells to be found in the pages of The Sisters Grimmoire.

After all, who couldn’t use a bit of Happily Ever After?

The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. I

A Bellyful of Stones - A curse to punish the greedy.

Eyes Like Coals - To summon a spirit guardian.

Roughskin - To protect and disguise oneself from those who mean to harm you.

Straw Into Gold - A spell to bring wealth.

Table of Plenty - To obtain needed money or provisions.

The Red Flower - For removing enchantment.

The Sorrow Pot - To relieve your sorrows and bring justice for a grievance.

The Wall of Thorns - To protect one’s home and property.

The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. II (forthcoming)

Make Sure You Lock Up - To set your household wards when you lock your front door.

Gilded Locks - To braid wealth into the caster's hair.

Something In The Water - To discover whether a person is suffering from the effects of baneful magic.

The Ferryman's Curse - To curse another with the problems that plague your own life.

The Shining Web - To repel trouble from the home.

You can find more spells from The Sisters Grimmoire, Vol. I and potion and powder recipes from Pestlework by checking out the mid-month minisodes of Hex Positive, available on your favorite podcast platform.

All of my titles can be found on Amazon or ordered from the Willow Wings Witch Shop. (If you'd like to see them in your local witch shop, feel free to give the proprietor my contact information!)

If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar and tune in to my monthly show Hex Positive! 😊

[breelandwalker]

The Sisters Grimmoire - A Bellyful of Stones

When the wolf at length had had his sleep out, he got on his legs, and as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to go to a well to drink. But when he began to walk and to move about, the stones in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled. Then cried he,

“What rumbles and tumbles Against my poor bones? I thought ‘twas six kids But it’s naught but big stones.”

And when he got to the well and stooped over the water and was just about to drink, the heavy stones made him fall in and there was no help, but he had to drown miserably.

- The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids —–

Greed is a curse unto itself, and this spell turns that malice back onto a person whose greed is harming the people around them.

Make or acquire a cloth poppet. You’re going to be stuffing the poppet, so make sure it’s a decent size, with plenty of room in the stomach area.

It is not necessary to have any hair or nails from the target in order to make the spell work, but it can help. In the absence of such things, you can name the poppet thus:

“Poppet, I name you [NAME]. Your limbs are their limbs. Your flesh is their flesh. As you suffer, so shall they suffer.”

With scissors or a small sharp blade, open a slit in the belly of the poppet. If there is pre-existing filling, remove some of it. Into the cavity where the stomach might be, place a whole chili pepper (any kind will do), seven small pebbles, and seven tacks or thorns. Carefully stitch the poppet closed and whisper to it:

“Rumble and tumble, A pepper and stones. Swallow your greed, And choke on the bones.”

Take the poppet to a deep body of water, such as a lake or pond, and drop it into the deepest part you can reach. If such a body of water is not available, you can “drown” the poppet in a bucket of water for three nights and then discard it with your garbage.

-from The Sisters Grimmoire: Spells and Charms for Your Happily Ever After, (2nd ed) © 2017 Bree NicGarran

Want more fairy tale spells? Check out the masterpost here.

If you’re enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar, subscribe to my monthly show Hex Positive, or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊

[aesethewitch]

Taking Notes for Witchcraft

You'll see the advice of "write everything down" everywhere, and for good reason. It's a fundamental skill when studying anything, in my opinion. You can be a great reader and know all the right ways to spot a bad source, but none of that matters if you aren't keeping notes. A student is only as good as their note-taking skills, and all witches are students.

But how do you take notes?

Well, first of all, take note of this: I'm not talking about a grimoire. This isn't about writing proven spells in a pretty notebook. This is about writing down everything in a non-judgmental, kind of messy, comprehensive log. It should have a standard layout or template to make it easier to use and look back on, but otherwise, it's a working document for your eyes only.

There are countless ways to keep notes on anything. If the school system failed you (as it did many of us), chances are, you weren't ever taught how to take notes. You were just told to "write that down" and never looked at it again. You're not alone! You, too, can learn how to take not just notes but good notes.

Fundamentals of Note-Taking

The important thing to remember here is that notes are for you. There is no test to pass, no professor to impress, no essay to write. These notes are meant to help you in your magical and/or spiritual practice. But what's the purpose of taking notes, if there's no one and nothing forcing you to take them? In my mind, there are a few:

Absorbing new information by associating a physical movement with the topic (as in, remembering writing something down and using that to recall the information)

Being able to go back and reread information you've already gone over, creating a reference document for future use

Making note of thoughts, opinions, and ideas in the moment so you remember them later

With these basic purposes in mind, you might think to yourself, "Oh, that's easy! Just write everything down. Easy peasy." But to make notes not only effective in the moment for absorption and having the information in one place, they also have to be organized. Writing things down willy-nilly is fine right up until the moment you're spending 20 minutes looking for one specific note buried in a pile of loose, unlabeled papers.

So here are my (very opinion-driven) guidelines for taking notes on anything:

Notes must be kept in a dedicated, bound notebook or dedicated digital file system. Not a binder, not in loose-leaf pages, not on scraps of paper. In a notebook. Spiral notebooks are fine, but I prefer something I can't rip pages out of. I have both a digital system and a notebook system; the notebook is for raw notes and unfiltered thoughts, whereas the digital system is more polished (my actual grimoire).

Notes must be kept in date order. Chronologically! Not by subject. No jumping around the notebook, either. It doesn't matter if one page has a list of recipes to test and the next is detailing an odd dream. If they happen on the same day, they exist together.

All pages must follow a template. I have several templates for various subjects -- one for test recipes, one for completed recipes, one for spells, one for research topics... Some are more rigid than others (recipes in particular). You can use any template or method that you want, so long as it works for you. What matters is that they're all the same every time.

The template must include the date, a title, and the purpose or a summary of what the notes are about. This makes it easier to remember when I did something, what it was, what the contents of the notes are, and why I was taking the notes later on.

Number your pages. A pre-numbered notebook is ideal, but you can always add the numbers yourself.

Notes have to be legible. It just has to be legible to you. If your handwriting sucks (like mine), that's fine so long as you can read it later. But this also means making an effort to use language you'll understand. Don't use fancy script you can't read or big words you don't actually understand.

Write in pen! Controversial, maybe! But you should take notes in pen, never pencil. For one, pen won't smudge and fade like pencil will. For another, writing in pen prevents you from erasing your thoughts in the moment. You shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes or crossing things out. Plus, erasing destroys paper. Just don't do it.

Write in two or even three colors. The third reason to use pen! When I write notes, I usually write my template out in black. Then, I'll fill in the basic information in the same black pen. The "actual notes" are taken using a colored pen (blue, often). As I take notes, I usually have thoughts and ideas outside of the information I'm trying to take down. To make these more clear and easier to find later on, I write them down in a third color (red or another fun color).

Let yourself be a little disorganized and "ridiculous." Look. I know I'm saying to use templates and write neatly. But these notes are for your eyes only. You can write things down that you don't think will be actually useful later. Jot down that this detail made you think of that person. Scribble doodles in the margins. Whatever. If it's not going to impede your note-taking, it doesn't matter. But also, if you start reading a book today and don't come back to it until next week, don't pick up the notes on the prior page. Start a new page. The title should reflect that it's a continuation, but don't skip pages to make room for more notes. Fill in every page as you get to them. This is why we number our pages -- note down where the last set of notes are and then keep moving.

An Example - Book Notes

Let's say I'm reading a book and want to take notes from it. The first thing I want to consider is my goal in taking these notes and what I'm hoping to get from the book. My notes will look very different if I'm trying to review a book's quality versus learning a particular type of magic. For the purposes of this example, we'll say I'm taking general notes to glean as much information as I can from the book.

And let's say I'm using... *casts about looking for the nearest book*... The Bountiful Container, by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. A book I genuinely do recommend for anyone looking to learn how to keep an edible container garden, by the way.

My ideal template for a book includes:

The date in the upper left-hand corner

The page number in the lower outer corner (for left pages, bottom left; for right pages, bottom right)

The title of the book as the title of the page, followed by the author

The topic of the book

What the book contains (spells, instructions, philosophy, guides, lists, etc.)

My goal in reading it and taking these notes

A heading to delineate where the actual notes begin

Dividing parts or chapters in my chosen note-taking pen color

Here's an example of what that might look like:

Note how I'm using bullet points to keep my thoughts organized and separated. You can also see the purple writing that denotes my less organized, in the moment thoughts and feelings on what's being said in the book. Here, the black pen is the template, the teal is the facts presented by the book, and purple is my personal commentary.

You don't have to divide your commentary and factual notes, by the way. I do it because I want to easily delineate between what's actually being said by the authors and what I'm thinking in the moment about what's being said. Sometimes, I'll write them as I have in the above example, in the margins or next to the factual stuff. Other times, I'll write them in line as a dedicated bullet point. It all depends on when I have the thought.

Another Example - Spell Notes

"But what about spells?" I hear you hypothetically asking. I'm glad you've hypothetically asked, dear reader! A very similar approach can be applied to writing notes on spells.

For the purposes of this example, I'll actually show off an updated version of the notes for my Pickled Pickle Hex. Note that this isn't my actual notebook or grimoire, since those are for my eyes only.

For spells, my ideal layout includes:

The name of the spell as the title

The date in the upper left corner

The page number as described previously

The source of the spell

Type of spell (hex, protection, edible, jar, candle)

Purpose of the spell

Ideal timing, if applicable

Ingredients

Instructions

Space for notes before, during, and after the spell (during/after notes may be recorded separately)

And here's the visual example:

Note again how the template and basic information is all in black. This color is all business, detailing the actual, physical steps taken for the spell. The teal pen describes the magical parts -- ingredient correspondences, magical acts, incantation locations, etc. In the actual version, I include the incantation itself here. Then, the purple pen is my thoughts while recording it. It's mostly me talking to myself, but note under number 5 in the second image where I ask, "Include time frame here?" It's a note to self to consider where to add an expiration or expected end date during the casting process.

Again, you can include whatever you want. My original notes have doodles and copious notes in the margins... plus ingredients I needed to pick up for the spell. You can include whatever notes you need to. If it's relevant in the moment, write it down.

Recording Spell Results

A big part of note-taking for me is writing down how things work and how it all went. After all, why would I want to cast a spell again if I didn't enjoy it and it didn't work?

It's important to keep notes during your casting. I would suggest tracking the following:

Thoughts and feelings you have (nervous, tired, happy, angry, "I'm hungry," "I should've brought water with me," etc.)

Messages you receive from spirits or other entities

Odd things you notice (wax dripping strangely, shapes in the incense smoke, sounds nearby, increased pet activity, tarot cards jumping)

Alterations to prescribed steps, ingredient substitutions, added or removed steps or actions

Questions you have during the casting and answers if you look them up immediately

Concerns that come up regarding efficiency, energy levels, whether you're "doing it right," missing ingredients, and so forth

How the final result turns out (how it looks, how you feel about it, etc.)

What your next steps are (hiding it, burying it, setting it on your altar, eating it, etc.)

During this stage, particularly for that last bullet point, decide when you'll come back to this spell to check how it went. Sometimes, it isn't possible to test your results (hexes on someone you don't see consistently, for example). Even so, you should still return to the spell to record how you feel, what you think with hindsight on your side, and so forth. If you can tell how the spell worked, write down what happened and why you believe it's connected to the magical working.

If you like, you can make additional notes on the spell and steps themselves. What I do is I put a note under the post-casting section that says, "Additional notes written [date] in this pen color." And, true to form, it'll be a different pen color to everything else I've written with so far.

Again, remember that these notes aren't final. They're experiments and study notes, not grimoire pages. These notes are what your grimoire will be based on. Once you feel confident with a spell, write it into your official grimoire using your layout and medium of choice. In my case, this means typing up the final, expanded version of my notes and spells.

Conclusion

Look, in the end, it doesn't matter how you're writing stuff down. All that matters is that you're writing it down. Keeping it organized makes it easier to use later. Do what works for you.

Here are a few suggestions for note-taking methods and applications that have fed into my philosophies:

Bullet journaling - This ended up not really being for me, but a lot of the ideals are really appealing. This is where the templates idea came from.

Lab notebooks - By far the biggest influence. I highly suggest all magical practitioners give the lab notebook method a try, especially for testing spells and recording results.

Writing prompts - No, really. Using writing and spell prompts to build out and test my note templates was critical when I was trying to figure out how best to set things up. It's a low-effort way to bang out a bunch of ideas and refine layouts.

Spell books - Obviously. Take a look at how authors lay out their spells. It's organized, easy to parse, and includes details about the working. That's ideally what your notes should mimic.

Obsidian - This is an application for taking notes. It completely replaced my massive, disorganized folder of Word documents. Link between pages, tag documents for easy sorting, embed content from reference websites, draw brain maps, organize folders, use add-ons to create templates... Obsidian has literally been life changing. I use it for everything, including my grimoire. You have to pay for it, but it's very worth it. A second brain, indeed.

Try different layouts, formats, methods, mediums, everything. Hell, write notes on what works and what doesn't for your note-taking. You gotta start somewhere.

If you like my work, consider throwing a tip in my tip jar! Your support helps me keep making posts like this one. Plus, supporters got access to the full version of this post a full week early! That could be you for as low as $1.

[themarchingbeetle]

Magical doors

[brenna-ivy]

Modern Male Witch Project: Masterpost

A personal project that has become very important to me: male witches in their private dens, with their belongings surrounding them that show what kind of person they are and what kind of magic they practice. I try to make every single piece emit peace and comfort, but with a magical twist!

Separate pieces

Bedroom witch | Bathroom witch | Kitchen witch | Home Office witch | Attic witch

Buy prints on Redbubble and Society6

Buy me a Coffee!

[enchantedengland]

Fairy tale woodland in west Dorset (@thewildwoodmoth IG)

[callmebliss-got-swamped]

Sorry I’m late I was obsessing over herb spirals

[reversetimelord]

Delicious. Finally, some wholesome fucking spirals

[ancientsstudies]

He whom love touches not walks in darkness.

[eternalsatan-deactivated2021121]

Natalia Drepina

[lunareye]

Just some more simple stuff. Instagram ~ Lunreye

[zivyx-deactivated20200628]

Witch Tip

the-eye.eu is a huge public database that has countless free PDFs of all sorts of occultist books and grimoires. Go forth and read.

[mahigxn-deactivated20200629]

It’s a really good source for lots of older occult texts, in multiple languages too.

[upthewitchypunx]

““Witches who don’t read carefully, critically or comprehensively are the worst kind of dangerous. Witches who DO read carefully, critically, and comprehensively are the best kind of dangerous.”

— Laura Tempest Zakroff (via maddiviner)

[starstonemagic]

I’ve picked up my Grimoire again and begun developing my Tarot section, (which is going to be huge and very time consuming but I am SO excited!)

Please feel free to use these pages as a guide in your own practices or as inspiration for your own BOS or Grimoire :) All I ask is that if you wish to recreate my design or wording, please credit in the description of your post!! Thank you 💕

✨Pages in my Grimoire on Tarot ✨

These pages begin my Tarot study on the symbols associated with the Major Arcana, the 4 Suites and associated zodiacs/meanings, the court cards and what they represent in meanings, numerology and their associated majors, and lastly color symbolism. this is basically all I need to do intuitive readings with the tarot!!

The next chunk of this will be meanings for each of the major arcana, based off of my own practices and what i’ve learned about their symbols.

[themori-witch]

Sympathetic Magic: What is it, and how does it work?

Unlike a lot of witchcraft-centric terminology, you don’t particularly see “sympathetic magic” thrown around a lot. This is because sympathetic magic is an umbrella term with lots of magics under its hypothetical umbrella. That doesn’t mean it’s not important to know what sympathetic magic is, however!

WHAT IS SYMPATHETIC MAGIC?

Put simply, sympathetic magic is an old type of magic in which an object that is associated with a target is used to seek influence over said target. 

An easy example of sympathetic magic is magics that use poppets. Poppets are powerful forms of sympathetic magic as they are a physical representation of a human target of the witch’s magic. Poppets are considered to be powerful because they often contain a taglock(s).

Sympathetic isn’t limited to just people, however. It can be used to influence events (an example being that if you desire a monetary gain e.g. a raise at work, you may want to include money in your spell), or even weather.

HOW DOES SYMPATHETIC MAGIC WORK?

There are two factors that make sympathetic magic work. Some magics involve both factor, some magics only one.

“Like-attracts-like”: an example of this, may be that should you wish to bring someone happiness, you can craft a poppet in their likeness and dress it in yellow. You could leave it in the sun with the intent of channeling the connotations of happiness from the sunshine. You could anoint it with an oil made to promote happiness, or you could tie a yellow ribbon around its head or heart.  The idea of “like-attracts-like” is pretty self-explanatory  —the method of the magic reflects your desired outcome, or to use the words of Sir James George Frazer: ‘that an effect resembles its cause’.

Items once in contact, retain a bond despite distance: this factor is one that states that once someone or something has been in contact with someone or something, the essence of the object/person will forever be bound to the object/person that touched it. This is why things like hair and nail clippings can be used as taglocks  —it doesn’t matter where or when the hair fell out or the nail was clipped. It carries the essence of its former owner, and always will.  This can work when influencing events too. For example, if you wish to bring about a storm and can find a tree that is scarred from lightning, you’ve hit the jackpot. A bit of charred bark would be the perfect proxy object for a spell to bring about a storm. 

Sympathetic magic can be subtle, or it can be a grandiose display of awesomeness, but that’s entirely your prerogative. I quite like the idea of standing on a heath in a cloak, waving a lightning-charged branch in the air to summon a storm, but I know that my limits are closer to changing my thinking by writing down my negative thoughts and literally eating my words (on sugar paper with edible pens! Be safe!).

[heatherwitch]

hi. how does one dismantle a spell jar (specifically a hex?). i've found posts about how to do them but not about how to dismantle them. is it the same as dismantling other spell jars? yours truly, a baby witch

It’s very helpful to incorporate some sort of reversal when you create curses/hexes. I’d personally reverse/nullify the magic and then toss it in the dumpster of the 7-11 located at a crossroads in a nearby town.

How to undo a curse

Uncrossing masterpost

Witchcraft 101 uncrossing

[will-o-the-witch]

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.