Black Ivy Witch

Norse Wiccan Witch. Here you'll find my projects, inspirations, and studies of pagan life and practice.

[skepticaloccultist]

Four Oak Galls Charm

Four Oak Galls Charm

“Four oak galls, with which an ink to make Each inscribed with the name of that elemental’s ‘sake.

Out in the pouring rain do we do this fateful deed, to wash away the grief of those who died before their heed.

Grind two nails, of a church door stolen, in a heated pot, to it add the oak galls with the ash of oaken rot.

With our ink we make a mark on the skin of an young oak tree thats lived but a year, not more, so the bark is plain to see.

Thirteen rowan berries we take as the autumn’s final offering, with which we conjure the spirit of this unhallowed thing.

In a circle round the youthful oak we bury every seed, and call the name of its spirit for to do this grave misdeed .”

[starfoozle]

Also, seriously, y'all – blackberry gin. Throw a carton of blackberries in a mason jar, buy some cheap gin, infuse for a week, and enjoy the most delicate, unexpectedly floral lilac-colored drink around. It completely transforms even the most dubious gin and rounds off the harsh edges – what a lovely thing. 10/10 would recommend. Home infusions are always the way to go, and gin beats vodka (no matter how cheap and cruddy) almost every time for additional depth of flavor and less harsh burn.

[lady-feral]

Saving for reference.

[mahigxn-deactivated20200629]

Good idea for ancestral offerings

[hexandbalances]

How to Make a Corn Doll

When I visited Salem last year (like a madwoman) I purchased a jet black corn doll sold in one of their museums as a souvenir. Though I believe these are more popular to make for Lughnasadh, I'm entranced with the idea of making a version for Samhain by dyeing corn husks (sold on the international food aisle in most grocery stores) black (or orange if you prefer) during the preparatory soak. Perhaps they will take the place of a wax doll, or function as temporary watch guards in my windows. Presuming my cats don't carry them off.

Courtesy of the NC museum of history Colonial History in a box kit 

[auntie-witch]

Cleansing Spray

Let’s face it. Not everyone likes to burn a bundle of herbs to clear there space. There’s the hassle of trying to avoid burning yourself with your cheap lighter, you get ashes and embers everywhere, and, well, not everyone likes the pungent smell of burning sage or rosemary or whatever.

I know there’s plenty of posts going around saying you can just use water and salt to cleanse your space, and yeah, that’s totally true!! It’ll work just fine, but sometimes you just want something with a little more punch.

Which is why I created this spray What you’ll need:

Purified water (for the base of the spray)

A little rain water (for cleansing properties)

Rosemary (for cleansing, protection)

Sage (for cleansing)

Peppermint (for energy, prosperity, abundance)

Lavender (for stress relief, peace)

Salt (whatever kind you have will work)

Essential oil (whatever you want)

A colander or something to strain the water with

A pot

A stove to boil the water and herb mixture

An empty, clean spray bottle

What to do:

Begin by prepping your area. I made sure I had all of my ingredients laid out, turned on some relaxing music, and lit my working candle. Prepare your herbs by washing them and gently patting them dry if they’re fresh. If they’re not fresh, measure out how much you need. 

Place the pot on the stove and turn the heat up to medium-high. Add your purified water and a splash of rain water. You only need enough to fill your bottle. I started off by adding some Himalayan pink salt (I associate it with love and protection). You don’t want to add too much salt if you plan on using this mixture to put on your walls or furniture. Add each herb into the mixture and bring to a boil. 

While the heat is rising and the energy in the water is increasing, focus on your intent and charge the water. Once it begins to boil, take it off of the heat and let steep until the water is cool. At this point, I stood over the mixture and stirred in some of my personal power symbols. If you don’t have any of those or a sigil you’d like to use, simply stir clockwise to promote good feelings or counter-clockwise to banish negativity. It’s totally whatever you prefer. 

Once it’s cooled down, strain the water and add to your bottle. You want to make sure it’s nice and cool so you don’t warp the plastic or let the plastic seep into the water. Now you can add a couple drops of your favorite essential oil and you’re done!

How to use:

For a quick cleansing effect, simply spray the area that needs cleansing and notice an immediate boost in the energy around you. Need to strengthen your wards? Spray this on your doors and windows and visualize it coating the entire surface, creating a barrier between your home and outside surfaces.

Spray this in your carpet before vacuuming to get rid of whatever might be sticking in those pesky fibers!

The possibilities are endless!!

[terr0rvision-deactivated2012072]

Tips for writing spells:

If you want to keep something close, bury it in your back yard. If you want to attract something, bury it under the front door step If you want to destroy its influence, burn it. If you want it to move away and sink, throw it in running water If you want to disperse it to a distance, throw it into a crossroads If you want to fix its influence, inter it in a five-spot pattern If you want it to work by means of spirits, bury it in a graveyard If you want to hide its point of origin, conceal it in a tree If you want it to work in secret, give it in food or drink If you want it to work by stealth, hide it in clothing or on objects If you want its influence to begin or strengthen, throw it East If you want its influence to end or weaken, throw it West If you want its influence to rise and fall cyclicly, float it in a tidal estuary

[theleveretpath]

Oh, guys. Oh. Guys. This, if you’re ever stuck on how to perform a spell! Handy little guide of awesome.

[greysorcery-deactivated20200709]

If you want to work with ancestors or guardian spirits, put it to the North. If you want to work from a place of innocence, put it to the South. If you want its effect to be strong and quick, burn it. If you want it to curse- burn it then bury in the West of a crossroads. If you want to break curses, soak it in water in the West.  If you want to add extra power to your spell, dance before dealing with the incantation. If you want it to work by means of spirits, call to the directions If you want it to work by demons, put it in the forever-dark place If you want it to work by angels, burn then put ashes into sanctified water. If you want it to cleanse, shred it and bind in a bundle of sage. If you desire freedom from a situation- do it behind your back.

[coolthingoftheday]

Solid bronze sickles of Luna and Solis. [x]

[therestlesswitch]

Subtle Yule Witching - 2 - Candles ✨🕯✨

The Holiday season is one of those magical times of year where witches can go about their witching and go unnoticed if they wish to since many modern Christmas traditions either have Pagan/witchy roots or can easily be made magical simply by doing things with purpose and intention.

I’ll be posting a series of posts on Subtle Yule Witching throughout the season and I’ll be making a master post that links to them all. If you have any suggestions for other areas of the season that could be made witchy, feel free to suggest them! 

*links to the other posts in this series at the bottom, updating as they’re posted*

During the holidays, candles are /everywhere/ at this time of year, which is great news for us witches! No one will question at all why your home is covered in flaming beauties. Since colour correspondence charts are everywhere and easy to find, I thought I’d talk about candle placement. Candles give off energy and can charge a space but they aren’t great absorbers of energy (at least for me,) So placing them in areas with an excess of hot energy can be too much. 

Some places I love to place candles: 

- By the front door -  you know how big stores have those massive heat or cooling vents right at the front door to regulate temperature? Candles in the entrance way can do the same thing with energies. If you enchant your candles, you can create wards to only allow positive energies and spirits to enter, or you can enchant them cleans any energies that come through to keep your home in balance with your own energies instead of getting all messed up with the stuff that your guests all bring in. 

- In the kitchen - I feel like you wouldn’t even need to enchant kitchen candles specifically in order for them to put good energies into any meals you prepare. You could enchant them if you’re having other people bring meals or pot-luck style gatherings to add positivity (or anything else you want to add) to the food others bring in as well. 

 - On dining room tables - this sort of has the same effect as candles in the kitchen, but since it’s a very social setting, it can have a great effect on the mood of the room and if your family tends to have tense holiday meals together, you can enchant them to bring harmony and understanding to the space. 

- In guest rooms - If any room in the house has stagnant energy followed by a whirlwind of strange energies when people come through to stay for the holidays. Before your guests come, light some candles and maybe some smoke cleansing to get that stagnation away and then have them lit in there at least once a day to keep it moving and positive. 

 - Near decorations that have a specific intent (like greenery etc) - The candles being near (but at a safe distance from) your purposeful decorations will help amplify and spread those item’s intention.

 - Outside - Having candles in hurricane candle holders might not be the most common thing, but it certainly won’t raise any unwanted eyebrows. It can do similar things to having candles in an entrance way, but any wards you have will have a much larger radius and your positivity will spread to more people and anyone who passes your property.

Scented candles are really not talked about much in the witchy community and I have no clue why! The scent notes that a candle has can be used as correspondences to your intent, and then the flame can work to activate, amplify and spread your enchantments/intentions/spells.

Here are some popular seasonal candle scent notes correspondences:

* Remember that correspondences are a rather personal thing. While historical uses are important, I mainly write correspondence lists based on the energies I feel and medicinal uses of the item. You may not get the same feeling as I do from an item, and that’s totally okay.

Almond - love, fertility, money drawing, wisdom

Apple - love, fertility, abundance, marriage, wisdom, afterlife/immortality, healing, beauty, cleansing, protection, banishing

Candy Cane - nostalgia, childlike wonder, innocence, peace, settling nervous energies, sweetness, cleansing

Cedar - comfort, cleansing, longevity, preservation, protection, growth, summoning spirits. (one of my favourite scents)

Cinnamon - Warmth, energy, circulating/moving energies, sweetness

Clementine - Joy, sweetness, refreshment, attracting positivity, good compartmentalizing in life

Cloves - pain relief (physical and emotional,) high energy, moving energies,

Cranberry - perseverance, action, healing

Fir (balsam) - clarity, sealing/binding, cleansing, protection, warding, longevity

Juniper - cleansing, motivation, health, energy, protection, prosperity (another of my favourites)

Lavender - calm, peace, sleep, healing, cleansing, mood boosting/banish depression and anxiety

Nutmeg - luck, love drawing, psychic energy, money drawing

Mint - cooling hot energies, settling nervous energies, peace, settling stomach health issues, refreshing energy, cleansing

Orange - Joy, abundance, health, refreshment, attracting positivity, good compartmentalizing in life

Pine - protection, cleansing, new beginnings, clean breaks, grounding, growth

Plum - fertility, love, protection, cleansing

Pomegranate - fertility, abundance, wishes, attraction

Rosemary - improving memory, studying, cleansing, healing, banish nightmares, past lives, banishing, faerie work

Vanilla - Harmony, peace, innocence, childlike wonder/sweetness

Subtle Yule Witching - 1- Decorating with Plants 🌲🌱🌿🎄🌾🌹🍊

[upthewitchypunx]

Omg. Kitchen witchy pizza punks!

What? Like, you have a new moon ritual where you make the dough and each person brings an ingredient that corresponds to a specific goal. You could all make a self-care pizza and eat it in the kitchen dancing to music together.

sign me up!

[upthewitchypunx]

You could make a protection from the cops pizza to eat before a demonstration or protest topped with garlic, cayenne, basil, and fake bacon!

[lightandloveandrage]

New new moon ritual omg. Who’s coming over? Drizzle Sigils of oil on each slice, make them out of a sprinkled herb mix, write them out in olives…

Do them on the grill with rosemary boughs or sage burning underneath.

[upthewitchypunx]

Sometimes I see when someone reblogs and old post and I’m like “ya! That was a rad post!” I still need to do this pizza witch thing. I think I’ll eventually out it in the witchy zine I’ll some day do with some correspondences for typical pizza toppings.

[upthewitchypunx]

FYI: I’m adding “Kitchen Witch Pizza Party” to my bullet grimoire right now. It includes a dough recipe and my personal topping correspondences.

[oshetart]

tea elements

green tea - water

rose rooibos - fire

lavender grey tea - earth

chamomile calendula - air

[blackivywitch]

Witch's Altar Black and White Art Print This is an art print for original artwork by artist Holly Ensey. This witchy altar piece features crystals, candles, potions, herbs, and all the necessary ingredients to weave some serious magick! Print is on heavy weight 8.5 inch x 11 inch cardstock for durability and comes in a high quality print bag with backing board. Frame not included, fits into any 8.5 in x 11 in document or art frame. Artwork © Holly Ensey 2018 Follow me on Instagram @hollyensey to see more of my work and upcoming projects!

Prints Available on Etsy

[thehoneybeewitch]

#problematic

I don’t really know how to finish this thought, but yeah.

when I first discovered magic/paganism as a modern belief system, it was all Wicca, and not very good Wicca at that. two ravenwolf books, and then whatever websites I could sneak through my junior high’s internet filter. it wasn’t historically accurate, or ‘woke’; it was probably very shallow by today’s terms. 

but it was real, and I practiced it every chance I got, despite living in a very religious household. I’d sneak tea lights into my bedroom, and struggled through learning theban. I started a BoS all in runes/code, and observed every holiday.

and then I got older, and suddenly, a good 90% of what I’d learned had something problematic about it. someone would say it was appropriative, someone else would say it was fake, and a third person would claim that it was just ‘misleading’. so I’d start searching for a new tradition, not stopping to wonder if those opinions were any more trustworthy than others.

elemental, kitchen, green, ceremonial, hedge, Hellenic, Kemetic, theosophy, satanic, ecstatic, traditional….and on, and on, doing less daily practice with each change, and loosing more faith. 

‘fluffy bunnies’ were a blight, and anything their kind liked was worthless. crystals were for wiffy white mothers. tarot was a soulless card game. religions were both cherry picked and forcibly adapted. druidry was a modern invention. the gods were invented by human imagination. runes had no more power than our own alphabet. herbs, incenses, and resins were simultaneously useless and absolutely universal- anything could be substituted for anything. there were no patterns, no synchronicity, no complimentary powers. magic was nothing more than thinking extra hard, and if you believed differently, then you were a snobby magical conservative.

and I lost my magic. completely. I stopped going to Pagan events. I stopped keeping a journal. I stopped doing spells, or blowing a kiss to the moon, or buying new books- even feeling magic itself was lost to me. what was the point? truly, by the logic of the common opinion, magic as i knew it wasn’t real. This lasted for almost five empty, sad years. with magic gone, my anxiety saw a vulnerable point, and I was heartbroken. I drifted through literally half a decade.

it took me a long, miserable time, and a few horrifying wake up calls, to finally wonder why the fuck I cared about those other opinions over my own? why was I only doing research that supported their viewpoints? why was I letting myself be defeated by people I’d never meet? why was I letting them take my power???

so be watchful, little witches and old witches alike. don’t let yourself get so mired down in the purity politics, or worse, the ‘everything is grey, nothing is fixed or set, there’s absolutely no black and white for anything and rules don’t matter ever uwu’ insanity. 

believe what feels right. always try to do good, but don’t despise yourself if you accidentally do wrong. no, you can’t use rosemary/dragonsblood incense/amethyst for everything (well, I guess you can, but it won’t work). correspondences are important. yes, the gods are real. 

and I love all of you. 

go do some mother fucking magic. 

[ioqayin]

I feel this post so, so, so much ♡♡♡

I think, I feel, that a lot of trad witches can probably relate.

[lavender-stone]

~Traditional Witchcraft, Gemma Gary The Red Serpent of the East Road The White Hare of the South Road The Grey Toad of the West Road The Black Crow of the North Road

[deerhoofandrabbitsfoot-deactiva]

Magic is everywhere. Magic is the Sun rising, plants blooming, seasons changing, babies being born. It is the harvest. It is the snowfall. Magic coaxes the gears of the Universe to turn.

Witchcraft is different.

Witchcraft is being followed in the woods at night and refusing to turn around. Witchcraft is the comfort of the night sky staring into your soul. Witchcraft is intoxicated dancing, screaming, rolling in ecstacy. Witchcraft is hidden deeper than Hell and far beyond the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

Magic is everywhere. Witchcraft is power.

[spiritleak]

[hoodooyousee]

Sweet Talkin’

This spell comes from the idea of “sweet talking” in order to achieve a goal. It works a lot like a honey jar which I have a post about if you’re interested in the history/how to make them. The sugar and honey act to “sweeten” your speech convincing the candle/spirit to work for you.

For this spell you will need:

1) Honey (or any other liquid sweetener ex. agave, syrup, molasses, etc)

2) Sugar

3) Something to mix with

4) A bowl or cup

5) Candle of your choice

What you’re going to do is mix the honey and sugar until it makes a paste. It should be pretty thick and not too runny. Then, using a candle you have already put your intention into your going to smear some of the honey onto it. Be careful not to overcoat it as this can cause fires/uneven burning. With the rest of the honey you’re going to put it on your tongue (DO NOT SWALLOW YET) and “sweet talk” the candle. Tell it what you want it to do, when it will be done and how. After you have said everything you wanted to say light the candle and swallow the honey mixture.

This spell can be used for money, love, or anything else really. I have had amazing results using this for money and have noticed this spell always works fast when I’m in a hurry.

Additional ingredients can be added of course, for example when using this spell for money I usually use cinnamon (powdered) and bank dirt (I have a post on this!) Happy casting!

[sigilseer]

Sigil of Abundance and Prosperity

Money magic can be tricky. There are a number of things that can go awry if you cast specifically for money. For instance, maybe you get the amount you want, but it happens through something awful, like getting hit by a car and receiving a settlement. Even if the money you desire does come to you through some non-terrible means, you might end up losing it immediately to unforeseen expenses. I read somewhere once that money is best regarded as a sort of trickster god, and I tend to agree. 

As such, I find that it works out better to cast for the feelings and outcomes you want to get through that money, things like security, happiness, and having everything you need. That’s what this sigil is about. A lot of spring and summer energy poured itself into this one, and a goddess showed up completely of her own accord.

Here’s to abundance!

[seraphickalmagick]

[Note: You can click this to see it fullsize if it’s hard to read!]

Stamping out the habit of labelling elements, planets, ingredients and concepts as masculine of feminine is an important part of making the magic community comfortable and accessible for everyone!