Blackbird Cottage

[xx-thespiderqueen-xx]

What you do with the remains of your spell (wax, photos, ashes, etc.) is just as important as the spell itself. The spellwork does not end when the candles and the incense extinguish. The spellwork is not complete until you return the remnants back to the Earth. The Earth and the universal energy carry and propel your magick and your spellwork to its full completion. Make sure your disposal method does not contradict your desired outcome by completing your spellwork following the disposal methods outlined below: 

– Burying in your Backyard – To maintain a desired circumstance, finances, a person, or a possession in your life.

Marriage

Prosperity

Protection

Harmonious relationships

– Burying in your Front Yard – To welcome something new into your life.

Attract new love

New career/life path spells

Attract a new experience, such as travel

Health

Marriage proposal

– Burying in the Cemetery – To curse or harm a person, or to end undesirable circumstance or habits in your life. Leave a few coins, pieces of candy and/or an apple at the cemetery gate as you leave. Take a different route home. Do not look back as you leave.

Curses

Banishments

– Burying in a Target’s Yard – To curse, bless, or to influence a specific person or family.

Curse the target

Love

Protection

Influence/manipulation spells

– Burying at a Business Property – To curse, bless, or to influence a specific business or an employee of the business.

Curse the business or employee of the business

Protection

Influence/manipulation spells

Prosperity

– Releasing Into Running Bodies of Water – To release negative circumstances or emotions. To deliver a curse or influence a person in a distant or unknown location.

Curses

Banishments

Spells to release emotional pain

Love

Influence/manipulation spells

– Leaving On Abandoned Railroad Tracks – To release negative circumstances. To deliver a curse or influence a person in the direction of the running train. If cursing, take a different route home, do not look back. Avoid the tracks for at least 3 nights. **Please use common sense and don’t ever put anything on active tracks! Any small debris could get lodged in the wheels and cause the trail to derail. So please do not do that! Bury the item near the tracks if you must, but far away enough so that it doesn’t interfere with the train.

Curses

Banishments

Breakup spells

Spells to release emotional pain

Love

Influence/manipulation spells

– **Leaving at an Intersection – To release negative circumstances. To deliver a curse, or influence a person in an unknown location.

Curses

Banishments

Release emotional pain

Love

Influence/manipulation spells

– **Leaving on a Road in the Lane of the Direction of Your Target – To deliver a curse or influence a person in the direction of  the traffic lane.

Curses

Influence/manipulation spells

Love spells on a specific person

– Leaving at a Target’s Front Door/Driveway – The most direct way to curse or to influence. Remnants must be inconspicuous and discreet, such as ashes mixed with dirt. If cursing, take a different route home and do not look back.

Curses

Love

Influence/manipulation spells

Protection

– Blowing/Throwing Ashes – (only when you only have ashes, without any wax) General all-purpose release of spellwork energy into the universe.

Blow in the direction of the target to curse or influence

Love

Prosperity

Protection

Healing

– Throwing Into A Fire – To release negative circumstances. To deliver a curse or influence a person in an unknown location.   If cursing, it is recommended the fire is not on your property grounds.

Curses

Banishments

Spells to release emotional pain

- Notes:

*Banishment spells refer to any spellwork where the desired goal is to remove or end undesirable conditions, circumstances, people, or habits. 

*After performing a curse, it is best to completely disconnect from your magickal working. Not because of karma or anything external, but because you cannot thrive while being attached to the energy of destruction. You can do this by not looking back when you walk away. By walking away without looking back, you consciously (and physically) disconnect and move on with your life.

**Do not leave anything in the middle of the road! For the spells involving intersections, you can bury the item near the road but not on it! You don’t want to cause any wrecks!

*oldworldwitchcraft.

[breelandwalker]

Another note - Be careful with cemeteries. Not just because of spiritual matters, but because of legal ones. Make sure you’re not doing anything that could get you charged with vandalism or trespass, and DO NOT disturb or dig up the graves.

(You’d think this would be common sense, but it isn’t. Google “Boneghazi” sometime.)

[blackbirdcottage]

You know when you’re a witch...

One of my final exams in my first year at culinary school, was to hold a presentation about herbs and spices. We had two weeks to prepare it. Well I had a difficult time. The points i had to hit was : 

Quality of the herbs, what it’s use for and how it is used...well All i could think about was which planet the herb corresponded  the magical properties and how it’s use for...

needless to say, I actually had to hit the library for the muggle version of the herbs....because I can’t very well introduce Mr. Bay Leaf  and go on to say that it’s used for divination and wishing spells..

[blackbirdcottage]

Kitchen Witch Tip.

Today at work, the head chef was teaching me how to use different herbs and spices to the best of it’s abilities. We were making Chicken breast with an Asian Fusion theme. So he whipped out some Rose Pepper seeds and he starts baking them on it own. -Note: you can also dry fry them til they crack before grinding them. ANYWAYS the Aroma that filled the Kitchen was that of FRANKINCENSE!!! I KID YOU NOT!

My inner me when OH MY GODESS! Rose Pepper is the perfect substitute of frankincense when you don’t have any on hand. Both have the element of Fire and both deals with energies and vibrations. Both deals with protection and banishing magic. Kicker...the pepper adds extra sting to the banishing.

Frankincense is one of the important rensin in witchcraft, and I’m not saying to skeiv on it. But when one is in a pinch, the kitchen cabinet will be there to aid.

PS. Do not use rose pepper in tonics that goes on face and body, bath or anywhere that causes itchyness. This substitute is mostly for gris gris bags, altar incense, jar and powder spells. Not beauty and bath....it wil itch, it will burn.

[blackbirdcottage]

Meet Sprout pencils, the most magical and enviroment friendly pencils I’ve seen in my live!

On the top of each pencil there i a seed capsule in place of an eraser, when the pencil gets to short to use, you could plant it!

They pods comes in herbs and flowers too! Imagine the sigils one can draw and double bonus and magical plant he comes with it!

[suzykassempoetry]

“THE WAY OF TRUTH” by Suzy Kassem Copyright 2011, SUZY KASSEM. All rights reserved.

Suzy Kassem Poetry

[cunningcelt]

Seriously, if Granny Weatherwax isn't your goal as a witch then what are you even doing?

(But I will also accept Penny ‘Grams’ Halliwell, and Frances and Jet Owens)

[thessaliad]

But what if Tiffany Aching is my witch goal? Also Petulia Gristle. AND NANNY OGG!

[cunningcelt]

These are also acceptable. Any of the Discworld witches are acceptable goals.

[darkbookworm13-deactivated20240]

What about Grandma Aggie Cromwell? Winifred Sanderson? Minerva McGonagall? Willow Rosenberg? 

[cunningcelt]

These are all also good.

[blackbirdcottage]

Mine is Francis, Jet and Madam Mim. Loves how the latter goes nuts in the kitchen with glamour spells!

[cunningcelt]

Twitter handles as taglocks?

Perhaps not the strongest taglock, but certainly not the weakest. There are countless John Smith’s in the world, but only one @john_smithyboy1999, for example. Your magic would zone right in on that person.

Thoughts? Agree or disagree?

[broomcorner]

I mean, it’s still a name. Maybe not your given name, but it’s still a name you give yourself. There’s power there, too. 

[cunningcelt]

Exactly!

[blackbirdcottage]

I agree. I believe everything created leaves a personal energy behind. It is a zoning point there.

[thesmokingcauldron]

Looking for some witchy friends

I’m trying to follow/talk to more 18+ witches so like/reblog this if you post about . General witchy things . Herbalism/ green witchcraft .Sigil making .tarot card reading .pagan witchcraft .crystals

[blackbirdcottage]

Meet Physalis. Also known as winter cherry or Chinese lantern.

It’s magical properties are matters of the heart as well as vitality.

Physalis is a semi tropical fruit. It has twice the vitamin C then a lemon has. Perfectly paired with passion fruit to make a truly loveable, lusty and fertile dessert.

As you get the gist, this fruit is used in love and fertility spells. It is also use in vitality spell to combat winter depression. Unpeeled and uneaten, the flower makes for beautiful decoration when dried, because it has the ability to retain is vibrant color. The fruit when coordinated  with a vitality spell helps combat winter blues. (Simple Vanilla ice cream paired with freash fruits helps that, For Vanilla promotes love and draws away negativity. Some self loving to combat winter blues is not bad at all)

In my family, we use Physalis in illumination spells, inspired by the name Chinese Lanterns.  When a relationship waxes and the road is unclear, physalis jam or a dessert, illuminates the path back to one’s heart. When uncertain on the matters of the heart, eat the fruit, keep the leaves of the lantern in a sleep sachet with your question. The answer will come in the path of dreams. After a huge fight with your lover, set the table with physalis flowers and olive branch- it helps heals the wounds, illuminate the path back to each other, and olive branch reconcile trust and friendship. 

[blackbirdcottage]

Witchy Tip

So, Yule /Christmas is over and it’s time to clear out the rushes and the tree.

Here’s a great tip from our family, save the pine needles.

-The scent helps with deprsseion

- It helps with banisment spell..when it turns brown, that you want to banish will be gone.

-Good for jinxs and hex spells as they poke..

-On that note it make it a perfect for *Give me back my money...property spell* as the person who owes you will itch. (This one was inspired by a spell from Silver Ravenwood. At the time I found it, I had no cayenne pepper of chilli, I use pine needles and cabinet pepper instead. Worked for me.

[helio-pathist]

Lmao

[wrathfulclam]

Love yourself more by not reposting this image that was wrong from the second someone even thought to create it.

[giraffes-eating-cake]

(Im confused, this picture does list the origins of these things..? its totally correct?)

[wrathfulclam]

No, no it’s not totally correct because this infographic is using bullshit history that partly erases other faiths to try and make it seem more like “wah poor pagans had our stuffs stolen.”

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, while the date might have been moved to coincide with various winter celebrations, the holiday is still not the same as a pagan holiday, except where some traditions were kept by converting local populations.

Easter is sure as heck not Ostara. Easter is scheduled each year by the timing of Jewish Passover, so claiming Easter is pagan is erasing Judaism’s part in that holiday. Jesus is even referred to as the Passover Lamb. Ostara as it is now, is fuzzy history because the goddess it’s meant to honor is only mentioned once in the writings of a Christian monk. 

Halloween and Samhain have complicated history and various traditions passed around, but Halloween is really not celebrated as a Christian holiday. All Souls Day and All Saints Day are more what’s celebrated. 

Valentine’s Day and Imbolc are not even, like what is that? Imbolc is on Feb 2 and it’s centered around Brigid and the festival of spring. Valentine’s Day is Feb 14 and has nothing to do with that? Like they might have had a stronger case with St. Brigid’s Feast Day.

May Day is not a Christian holiday, it’s an adapted holiday that’s traditions have been passed around for awhile. It’s more of a general name for that celebration. It’s like arguing that this holiday is literally the same holiday. May Day is just a different name for Beltane.

The days of the week, not touching, it’s roughly right, but really a moot point because it’s a matter of how language evolved and how the names of the days were held onto.

This is a rough breakdown of why that image is wrong. If you want more, I encourage you to actually look into it.

[blackbirdcottage]

I love how Norwegians stil have the pagans name day with a little difference

Mandag = moonday

Tirsdag= tyr/tiw/tir day

Onsdag= Odins dag

Thorsdag= need i transelate?

Freday= short for frey and freya

Lørdag= cleansing and washing day

Søndag= sun’s day

[lamus-dworski]

Andrzejki - feast of love divinations in Poland

This is a feast celebrated on the night of 29th/30th November. It’s believed to be a magical night suitable for the love spells, and was celebrated throughout the centuries mostly by the unmarried people who wanted to reveal their future husband or wife. Similar feasts are also observed for example in some parts of Ukraine, Slovakia, Russia, Germany, Austria and Romania [read more here].

A BIT OF HISTORY

The original name of these celebrations was lost in history. The oldest historical sources confirm that this kind of custom was an old tradition in Poland already around 14th-15th centuries. Informations about Polish women who were sentenced to death for conducting wax divinations (described below) can be found in 16th-century documents. 

Nowadays the Poles celebrate primarily the Andrzejki (St.Andrew’s Eve), but some remnants of a similar feast of Katarzynki also survived - it was celebrated on the Eve of St. Catherine / Katarzyna (24th/25th Nov), and survived the longest in the region of Biskupin. 

It is said that Andrzejki was dedicated primarily to the girls who wanted to know more about their future partner, and Katarzynki was the best for the boys to make divinations. 

THE DIVINATIONS

The most popular form of divinations in Poland is pouring hot wax onto cold water. The wax is first melted over fire in a small mug, then poured through a keyhole. People wait until it hardens properly in the cold water, then the pieces of wax are held against a candle to produce shadow on a wall. Its shapes symbolize things that will happen in the upcoming year. 

Instead of a key, in the old days people were using for example woven straw or a horseshoe. In case of lack of a proper key, it’s also acceptable to cut a shape of it out of e.g. cardboard. In the past many people were also using melted lead instead of wax.

Wax divinations prepared by Urzecze Ensemble.

Pouring the wax.

The piece of wax can be rotated in all directions until its shadow creates a distinctive shape.

Other popular divinations include a race of shoes. Everyone gathered in the room take out one of their shoes and place in a line on the floor. The last shoe in the line is carried to the front - the process is repeated until one of the shoes reaches the front door and crosses the theshold.

Originally it symbolized a girl leaving her home, and owner of the lucky shoe will be the first from the gourp to get married in the future.

Preparing the shoes for divinations (Urzecze Ensemble).

The shoe race can be sometimes manipulated by tilting of the line.

Some old divination involve also the house pets. Each person prepares a small bowl with treats - for example milk for a cat or pieces of meat for a dog - and then places it on the floor. Owner of the bowl from which the pet eats first will be the first to get married (or find their true love). 

In the old days the treats were very carefully prepared - they were for example small cakes prepared of certain ingredients, mixed with water that was gathered in a certain way from a well or a brook (brough home for example only in a red mug or only in your own mouth), and baked over fire that was ignited with a wood plank borrowed (or stolen) from a neighbour.

If the pet runs away out of the room with the treat, it was also a good sign meaning a marriage (symbolic crossing of the treshold). However, if the animal hides under a bed with the treat, it meant death of the food’s owner. If the food is only bitten and left in the bowl or close to it, it meant that the partner would break up.

Treats prepared for a dog. Drawing by Robert Sawa.

Other popular divination require preparing of pieces of paper with names of the crushes written on it. In one of the versions the paper (preferably in a shape of a heart) is then turned around and pierced with a pin to reveal which of the names is the future spouse. The paper can be also pinned to a wall and serve as a dartboard. 

In another version, much older, the people prepare small strips of paper, in a form of lots, and put them under the pillow - they draw one in the morning right after waking up. 

Regardless of the version, the papers should always have at least one empty spot / one empty lot in case neither of the chosen names is the destined one.

Before another popular game of divinations the people prepare mugs, flipped upside-down, and hide a symbolic accessory under each of them. The mugs are shifted around, and a person (with their eyes covered) choose one. The hidden accessory indcate the future. It could be for example a ring or a female cap meaning marriage; a twig of rue or a dry leaf meaning spinsterhood / bachelorhood; a rosary, its beads, or a cross meaning a religious life or even life in a monastery; a coin meaning a wealthy life (but not necessarily full of love); a doll meaning an illegitimate child. One mug should be always empty - it means that nothing will change in the nearest future.

The divinations have dozens of regional types in Poland, and often take forms of various games or competitions. Many customs are sadly forgotten or not practiced anymore, only being told in stories by the oldest generations.

In the modern days the people treat Andrzejki as a special night that strenghtens and ensure effectiveness of various divinations - many of modern activities come also in forms that are known worldwide, for example reading cards or tea leaves. Among most of the modern Polish society the divinations are no longer taken seriously, and are only an occasion for a unique once-in-a-year party, very often combined with celebrations of Andrzej’s namesday.

Sources of pictures: Leksykon Lublin, Łowiczanin.info, Czas Bocheński, Gazeta Wrocławska, Dziennik, Garnek.

[petitepointplace]

Happy Andrzejki!!

[elemental-witch-deactivated2024]

Interesting..

[dianasson]

late but still

[blackbirdcottage]

love it! Thank you!

[blackbirdcottage]

Dear Mr. Road Rage

“ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

Dear Mr. Road Rage,

I understand that some people really shouldn’t have a drivers license, and I really do from the bottom of my heart understand your frustration. But in your anger you have become judgemental, blided by your rage -you refuse to see anything else. Here, I lay my case before you :

#1 The t:ime I took a little to long to move my car from the gas pump, you came up to my car and banged hard at my window, yelled and flipped me the bird before stalking off...I had a mobile in my hand..there was a message. My husband was in an accident and was rushed to the hospital. In the message there was details. What you failed to realise was the tears in my eyes and the shaking of my hands. Thanks for making my day even more crappy.

#2 I had to pull off the road. I did everything by the book, there was a clear view at both sides of the road. I rushed out to the passanger side...you sped by, blasting your horn and flipping the bird- I didn’t see the nearest rest stop. My son dropped his inhaler and was having a bad astma attack. As you sped by with your rage, you failed to see a mother’s angst on her face.

#3 The time you were in a rush, I was driving below the speed limit in the thick fog. You honked, drove right up behind me...and in your frustration took a drive by only to slam down on you breaks, because what you didn’t see, but I could, There was a tiny tractor in front of me, carryng a bale of hay.

Congratulations, by hating and raging about the 2% of the idiots out there, you’ve contributed to the percentage and become the very asshole that you hate. 

Before you plan to flip the bird, yell a curse or slam down on your horn, I do advise you to think twice.

A short letter compiled from both experiences of my own and others

[daily-harry-potter]

The first thing Snape asks Harry is Potter! http://daily-harry-potter.tumblr.com

[blackbirdcottage]

Wow! mind blown!

[qedavathegrey]

Practical and Ritual Correlations Between Cooking & the Craft

I’ve always noted the similarities between “cooking” and the Craft – both evolutionary and practically. In other words, I don’t just keep my rituals in a recipe book for no reason, because rituals – for the most part – are in fact recipes. That’s not a new concept, but one adapted by many folds of the Craft. It is also one I haven’t seen thoroughly discussed here (and that might well be my fault for not. looking hard enough, admittedly). As such, I thought I might as well write a short explanation of the symbolic equivalence of the two.

In essence, when broken down, cooking and magic can be explained as the act of: combining items in such a way that they might be transformed into something grander than their individual constituents. Many things in nature can be described as so (specifically chemistry, which cooking is a form of), but I’ll just stick to cooking – as it is something everyone can understand to some extent or another. To perform this action and render wanted results, there are things that must be accounted for.

Ingredients

Without a doubt, these serve the most important aspect of both cooking and the Craft. Let it be noted that I am a traditionalist, and as such, believe plants have as unique an energetic fingerprint as they do a flavor. There is no such thing as substitution. Two “Love” plants are no more interchangeable than two “spicy” herbs. They may well render similar results, but they are not and will never be wholly interchangeable. I’ve read a few posts recently wherein New Agers were attacking traditionalists for saying that there were no available substitutions. The New Agers were angry – saying that the traditionalist believed that: “You just think people with lesser means shouldn’t be practicing!” That accusation was so off-base I nearly spat out my tea.

I vehemently stand with the other Traditionalist in question in that, he/she is right. Not everything can be just replaced all willy-nilly and be expected to render the same results. You wouldn’t rightly expect an onion and a clove of garlic to render the same flavor profile (even though they’re in the same family), so how on earth could you expect to replace one with the other to meet the same end? What you were asking was for something that would compromise the integrity of the given ritual – something I, myself, would also refuse. The audacity one must have to come to a witch and demand that they give you a cheaper substitute that brings the same results is astounding. That isn’t to say witchcraft cannot be performed economically, but you can’t simply demand cheaper options to an already composed ritual and expect the same results. It’s as foolish as it is naïve. I, personally, am very understanding when it comes to the spectrum of financial means in the community and would always be open to – not offering cheaper substitutes for an existing ritual – but offering an entirely new ritual with more economical ingredients. However, if someone were as rude to me as these particular New Agers were being, I would not only have not done this – but may well have found it fitting to rain down a maelstrom of hellfire on them.

I digress, however, to ingredients. They are important and they serve a practical purpose. These needn’t always be plants, obviously, as ingredients can extent to curios, powders, oils, seeds, etc. And while I think I’ve covered substitution, I have not yet covered omission.

In all honesty, I believe I’d omit long before I’d substitute – especially in the case of accessory ingredients – which some spells have and others don’t. In that regard, it’s very much about knowing the correspondences of your herbs. These will not always align from craft to craft – just as identical spices are used in conjunction with other spices that produce unique profiles from culture to culture. They may taste the same (though that isn’t always the case: Mexican Oregano, for example, has a much different taste than the usual oregano with which most are familiar), the other ingredients present can amplify, detract or transform the flavor into something entirely different. A big part of this is that cultures cook with (and use ceremonially), those that grow in their area – for the obvious reason that they’re there. While we live in a modern age where most herbs and spices can be gotten year round and from all over the world, such was not the case until maybe 30 years ago. As such, there are pros and cons with this. Pros extend to the fact that we have a much wider range of available ingredients, ones that can be documented and reproduced much more efficiently in the craft. Conversely, depending on locale, some of these can be very expensive to obtain – and, additionally, we shirk off the herbs that grow commonly in our area. I am very much an advocate for collecting, drying and using the herbs present in your location – it connects you to your specific location’s flora, it allows for the opportunity to expand your knowledges by having to familiarize yourself with and identify the herbs and plants common to your area (especially those that are unique and not sold commercially), and – for the most part – it’s free! Witches have been collecting and identifying for as long as we have been – it would seem a shame to stop it now, just because buying them can be easier. We live in a modern world, I know, but if things had not been broken for millennia, I highly doubt they need any fixing now. It’s a lot easier to keep something alive than try to resuscitate it later.

Pot/Pan/Vessel

Symbolically, the pot/pan exists as a microcosm – the place wherein your ingredients might be combined, and from them, wrought the new. This could be your circle, work space, even your hands. In cooking, it serves to contain and control the working – and the same can be said for the magical element. This is where you control and augment the energies in combination, to bring forth the results you desire – but the pot is a place that is energetically neutral – a place that is conductive to the “heat” that cooking requires, which brings us to:

The Stove/Fire

This is wherein your influence resides. This is the catalyst point, wherein energy might be funnel through you into your working – “cooking” the ingredients. Of course, this isn’t the only place wherein your influence as the “chef” might be noted, as you must tend the whole process – the process that first begins with your desire. You cannot cook if you do not first turn up the heat! (Unless we’re making a ceviche or something, and I don’t think we are…) 

Electricity/Gas/Wood

This is the element few think about when drawing comparisons to cooking and the Craft – but while we (witches) exist as the heat, this heat is not born from nothing (see the Law of Conservation of Energy, if you don’t believe me) – this heat is born from underlying energy. And what this energy is depends heavily on the witch performing. Some choose to draw from Deities, Nature (not personified), the Sun, Moon, Cosmos, specific locations, even Self. It is this energy – that exists at its rawest state that makes the Craft possible. It doesn’t depend where you draw from, only that you do – for without it, all other steps would be wasted. Without this energy, there would be no heat. Without heat, the pan would not conduct, the food would not cook and the whole process would be futile. You could call this Faith – but that is not always correct, as witches and their energetic influences are as varying as possible cooking ingredients. It isn’t about what the chosen source is, though, it’s about choosing one and using it! Find your source, and after that, the rest is cake.

As I’m sure you all know, the list of cooking implements seems to expand almost infinitely, much like instruments in the Craft. For this, however, I’ve stick to the most basic elements as I can: ones unspecialized and easily relatable, and hopefully have helped some in understanding the correlations between cooking and Crafting so that, perhaps, they might gain a further understanding of their own process.

image source

[blackbirdcottage]

I Agree with you. Substitution and Omission, I believe should be done when one is in a pinch. I love your flavour referance. I agree, as a cook, we can use substitutions but it plays on our gut as we prepare ourselves for a different outcome of the flavours involve. I think, when one finds a spell that suits you, read it, re-read it. check the steps and ingredients. Can I afford it? Do I have time? If you have to substitute half the list or omit a good part...is the spell really suited for the caster? 

[swampseer]

Witch Tip:

When making black salt, use ash of protective and banishing plants such as oak, rosemary, rose, anise, black pepper and whatever other plants suit your fancy to give it an extra boost.

[qedavathegrey]

The Crossroads

The Crossroads are an infinitely powerful place – where the planes collide, the worldly nexus and the paths of decision. While always related to the actual crossing of roads, the symbolic nature of the Crossroads extends far beyond – even in the physical plane. The nexus include far more than the mere crossing of paths, but present at many – both naturally and made-made – destinations. Below you will find a (non-comprehensive) list and a brief description of how they apply to the Crossroads and what work might be done most efficiently at the particular junction.

Physical Crossroads

“X” and “T” Crossroads

This grouping includes the Crossroads in its traditional sense – as the crossing of roads in an “x” or “+” formation. These, of course, are well documented and are usually what is being discussed when talk of crossroads come up. These can be specified – for instance: a crossroad at the edge of town, in the woods, etc., all of which have their own, unique connotations. Their “sister” crossroads is the T crossroad (alt. “Y”) – which is still prevelantly known. These are my personal favorite, being an adherent to Quimbanda – these Crossroads are held sacred to Pomba Gira. They offer a more concise, selective and direct crossroads energy – as they only offer 3 roads, two choices, the forward option rendered entirely void. In this capacity, there is no option but to change. You cannot continue as you are, but instead must choose a new path – change at its greatest.

Bridges

These are much like the traditional crossroads, though there is a minor planar separation. As the water and the bridge never transect. In this capacity, you have a path or tangent that is not wholly present, but guiding. From above they appear to intersect, but from the ground we see they do not and cannot – though this doesn’t make them any less useful. It is at these places that change can be made fluidly. Where as the “T” crossroad is (arguably) the most severe, change-bring crossroad, this the the least so. As such, this one is not so much about bringing in the new, but freeing yourself of the old. Symbolically, spirits were always said to be unable to cross running water – in this case, there is a part of you that you feel needs to be relinquished, one you will not permit to cross the water with you. This is the cross of letting go of that which need be so.

Railroad-Track Crossings

Again, similar to the above to entries, these represent more traditional crossroads. These can be broken down into two, separate sets of places:

Where Tracks Cross a Road: These can be used as a symbol for a path that is fixed, continuous and unstoppable. The train will continue, it is your responsibility to stop. This can be a place to work rituals for motivation, drive and success – or alternately, to learn patience. Sometimes the only, real option is to sit and wait – there is strength in patience, these places might allow for this realization.

Where Tracks Cross Tracks: A recipe for disaster. Two, headstrong, unstopping forces are doomed to collide. While the former has the potential to grant motivation, this one is the reality of too much or counterproductiveness. These places are great for working curses that breed devastation, and chaos working from all sides. Place a penny at the junction, allow it to be flattened and collect it to use in particularly nasty curses.

Property Corners

That’s right, little did you know you had a Crossroads (literally) in your own backyard! At each of the corners of your property, where four plots meet, there is a crossroads. These, naturally, are best used for things relating to the home – protection, finance, martial issues, health and well-being. Probably not the best to use these to call up Crossroads Spirits or make any Faustian Deals. 

Cemeteries

The liminal space of the dead on the plane of the living – these are the sites where the dead interact (in great number) energetically with our plane, building a nexus of sorts. Naturally the larger the cemetery, the more effective this nexus becomes (here’s looking at you, New Orleans). It’s not enough that they exist spiritual in one place, but its that they exist as both physically and spiritual distinct in the location – their spirit and body exist, but no longer bound, working in a sort of intersecting movement. To no one’s surprise, these are the places most fitting work with the Dead, bridging the planes, communion with the spirits, etc. It’s also little surprise that many Cemetery Spirits have numerous correlations to their Crossroads counterparts.

Churches

That’s right, churches, too are liminal spaces – wherein the Divine (of which ever sort) ground to the earth and form a crossroads. These are obviously most fitting religious works – divine paths, orchestrating change with the help of the Divine, resolution to crises of faith, etc. As for curses go, these same qualities can also be harness to bring about crises of faith and repurpose the energies for more malignant works. 

Metaphorical Intersections

Doorways

While at first thought, one might assume that doorways would be much like a “T” crossroad of not more severe – as there is but one path that may be taken. This, however, symbolically is not the case. While we know a closed door will always open to the same place here, spiritually that’s never a guarantee. In fact, doors have the capacity to connect all things. One door may lead to any other. But be warned, doors  go both ways – be careful where it leads, for it will also lead back.

Hands/Feet and Mouth/Ears

Hands and feet are the intersection of the mind and the physical. It is they who move us, connect us, or create from our mind something on this plane – such as art, writing, gesture. Mouths bridge mind to mind through verbal communication – what the mouth sends, the ear receives and the mind interprets. As such, all of these things occupy a sort of liminal space.

Cosmic/Season Crossroads

Twilight

Twilight is the bridge from day to night, a time of change – a commingling of both of their characteristics. Depending on what you seek, these can be used as a way to gain insight. For illumination, enlightenment utilize dawn – allow the sun to bring light to the darkness. For understanding, self discovery or occult knowledge, use dusk – wherein the preconceived notions of day fall away to reveal the hidden truths of night.

Midnight

The minute when one day ends and the next begins – colloquially referred to as “the witching hour,” it is a time between time. This can be used for many works – though, when I utilize midnight, I use mid-night. The time at the middle of when the sun sets and rises – the darkest part of night, when it is at its strongest, after is has waxed, but before it has waned.

31st day

Like Twilight and Midnight, this is time related – a place between months, a time for change. These can be utilized much like more regular New Years: a time to make resolutions, enact change and bring anew/cast out the old. As such, they’re good for exorcisms and rebirth.

There are countless other options, but I chose to note the ones I’ve been known to use. I’d love to hear and see what some of all know to be unconventional crossroads!

image source

[blackbirdcottage]

Handy witchy Information for both young witches and experienced ones.