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Some fresh deer bones

the-cobalt-athenaeum-deactivate

EYE OF NEWT, WOOL OF BAT... HERB CODE NAMES IN WITCHCRAFT

"Filet of fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye Of Newt, and Toe Of Frog, Wool Of Bat, and Tongue Of Dog, Adder's Fork, and Blind Worm's Sting, Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing. For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble" - Second Witch, Act IV Scene I, William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Though, Shakespeare was a master of manipulating words, he doesn't get credit for the macabre sounding ingredients in Macbeth's witches' brew. In fact, as long as mankind has been using plants for food and medicine, we have given them interesting folk names. Throughout history, commonly used plants and herbs have been given different names based on certain attributes of the plant, it's growth habits or even specific reasons it was used for. Common dandelion has been called bitterwort, for it's strong and bitter taste, blowball and puffball because of it's seeding habits, lion's tooth for it's deeply serrated foliage and piss-in-the-bed because of it's diuretic properties. Depending on where you live, you may call Glechoma hederacea creeping charlie or ground ivy; it's also gone by gill over the ground, runaway robin, and lizzie run up the hedge because of it's aggressive runners, cat's foot for the shape of it's leaves, alehoof because it was commonly used in the making of beer and ale, and field balm because it has been used for as a general heal-all herb for balms, salves and teas for thousands of years.

Witches were specifically careful to guard their herbal secrets. They came up with odd and grisly sounding folk names for the plants they regularly used, like eye of newt for mustard seed or wool of bat for moss. Many historians believe that witches used these gruesome sounding names so that their spells and herbal remedies could not be easily copied. Back in Shakespearean times, those who were labeled as witches were usually herbalist, midwives and healers; their livelihood often depended on their knowledge of herbs and their uses. Therefore they created secret code names for the plants they used.

In some cases certain body parts were used as code for the part of the plant used in a spell or herbal remedy. For example, "eye of…" would usually refer to a round shaped blossom or seed of a specific plant; as in eye of newt, which is simply mustard seed. In some cases, an animal name was used in place of a plant name, just like the "newt" would represent mustard plant in eye of newt. Below I've listed some of the common body parts in witchy plant names and their meaning, as well as commonly used animal code names.

BODY PARTS AS PLANT PARTS Eye- Blossom or Seed Heart- Bud or Seed Beak, Bill or Nose- Seed, Bud or Bloom Tongue or Teeth- Petal or Leaf Head- Blossom Tail- Stem Hair- Dried Herbs or Stringy Parts Of Herbs Privates, Genitals Or Semen- Seeds Or Sap Blood-Sap Guts- Roots or Stalk Paw, Foot, Leg, Wing or Toe- Leaves

PLANT NAMES AS ANIMALS Toad- Sage Cat- Catmint Dog- Grasses, Specifically Couchgrass Frog- Cinquefoil Eagle- Wild Garlic Blue Jay- Laurel Hawk- Hawkweed Lamb-Wild Lettuce Nightingale- Hops Rat- Valerian Weasel- Rue Woodpecker- Peony

Secret codes among witches and herbalists There are many other animal/plant associations, and even associations to gods and mythological beings, that were used as plant code names. Like folk names, witchy plant names would have changed by region and era. By combining a body part and an animal from simple lists like these as a code, a witch or herbalist could keep the ingredients of their spell or remedy secret. For example a witch who wanted to sell her herbs might list the ingredients of a tea for insomnia as rat guts and blood of lamb, instead of just valerian root and wild lettuce sap. This would not only prevent the customer from just growing their own valerian (which is actually heliotrope) and wild lettuce, but it also had a much more official witchy sound. Even though these names were crude and sometimes vile, they made the healer sound more legit and gave the tired consumer confidence that they finally found the one magical cure.

Some of these names are still in use today! These days, there are many almanacs of magical herbs and herbal grimmoires available online or at bookstores, that list out Witch Herb/Plant names and even details their uses. Just for fun, I will leave you with a list of some of my favorite witchy plant names.

Ass' Ear- Comfrey Bat's Wing- Holly Leaves Beard Of Monk- Chicory Bear's Foot- Lady's Mantle Bird's Eye- Germander or Speedwell Blind Eyes- Poppy Blood From A Head- Lupine Blood Of Ares- Purslane Blood Of Hestia- Chamomile Bloody Fingers- Foxglove Calf's Snout- Snapdragon Cat's Foot- Ground Ivy Crow's Foot- Wood Anemone Devil's Ear- Jack In The Pulpit Devil's Plaything- Yarrow Dew Of The Sea- Rosemary Dog's Mouth- Snapdragon Dragon's Teeth- Vervain Elf Leaf- Lavender Englishman's Foot- Common Plaintain Fairy Eggs- Nutmeg Flower Of Death- Vinca Goose Tongue- Lemon Balm Graveyard Dust- Mullein Hawk's Heart- Wormwood Juno's Tears- Vervain Jupiter's Beard- Sempervivums Lion's Foot- Lady's Mantle Little Faces- Viola Man's Bile- Turnip Sap Mortification Root- Rose Of Sharon Nose Of Turtle- Turtlehead, Chelone Nosebleed- Yarrow Our Lady's Tears- Lily Of The Valley Old Man's Flannel- Mullein Ram's Head- Valerian Scale Of Dragon- Tarragon Semen Of Ares- White Clover Semen Of Hermes- Dill Serpent's Tongue- Dog's Tooth Violet Sparrow's Tongue- Knotweed Tree Of Doom- Elder Unicorn Root- Boneset Weasel Snout- Yellow Archangel Wool Of Bat- Moss

byzbi

enchanting-jewel

Magical Days of the Week

Monday - Healing, Wisdom, and intuition. Monday is a day for workings related to the Moon, fertility, consecration of jewelry and divinations.

Tuesday- Strength, courage, victory. On Tuesday, enhance your passions. Cast spells of assertiveness and courage. Activate protective talismans.

Wednesday - Communication, business, and change. Use Wednesday as a day for job-related spells opening paths of communication and manifestation.

Thursday - Grounding, abundance and health. On Thursday craft spells for good luck and restoration. The grounding energy of this day will bring prosperity and good fortune.

Friday - Love, romance, and friendship. Friday favors harmony, friendship, growth, and reconciliations. Make baths, potions, and charms for love, enjoyment and pleasure.

Saturday - Protection, banishing, and karma. Cleanse away problems in your home and life. Eliminate bad habits and influences. Cast spells for karmic retribution, justice and protection.

Sunday - Success, fame and victory. Sunday radiates vitality and success. Use this day to cast spells of inspirations and wealth.

Enchanting Jewel

starlit-chaos-witch

the-witchyforest

How To Dry Herbs

Work best for:

Air drying works best for low-moisture like marjoram, oregano, rosemary and dill.

What to do:

Trim fresh herbs at an angle to protect the rest of the plant. Put the bundle of herbs, stem-side up.

Hang or over a week, ideally in a cool, dark place.

Storage:

Herbs are best stored in airtight glass containers. They're uses range from cooking, tea, tincture, even decoration.

Drying:

Gather 5-10 branches together and tie with string or a rubber band. The smaller the bundle, the easier and faster they will dry.

poisonkittie13

magnoliawitchcraft

So you wanna make your own incense?

You've come to the right place sweetness. For clarity's sake I want to specify that I am not a professional. This is simply what I did to make the incense that I use. Always research your herbs and herbal mixtures, be aware of your allergies, and remember to use herbs from high quality sources to protect your health. And remember, the best witchcraft is safely practiced witchcraft.

What you'll need: Herb of choice (no correlations listed here, otherwise we will be here all night)

Coffee grinder (or a mortar and pestel, but baby we are in the 21st century work smarter not harder)

Tap water (charge it if you want for extra pizzazz)

Optional: oven, preheat to 190 degrees Fahrenheit

Step one: grind up your herbs in the coffee grinder, the finer the better. My herb was food grade lavender.

Step two: Divide the ground herb into two separate bowls, a wet bowl and a dry bowl. Into the wet bowl, mix into the herb with some water so the consistency is a modable clay. Sacred water is great for this.

Step three: Form the clay into a cone shape in any way that makes the most sense for your body. For me, that involves using my thumbs and middle fingers, but whatever way works best.

Roll the wet cone into the dry bowl, coating the cone in a layer of powdered lavender.

You can either leave the cone to dry over night, alternatively---

Place in oven for 40 minutes to an hour to dehydrate the cones!

Ta-da! I hope these directions inspire you to give this a shot yourself. I know I had a lot of fun making this lavendar incense, and I know I'm excited to make more in the future. Don't stop creating lovelies.

<3 Magnolia

enchanting-jewel

Magical Months

January - safety, protection

February - forgiveness, healing

March - success, motivation

April - luck, oppertunity

May - growth, maturity

June - commitment, love

July - authority, self-control

August - accord, peace

September - spiritual growth

October - personal change

November - empathy

December - understanding

school-of-roses

✶*✧Introduction to Spell Sealing✧*✶

Everything must come to an end.

This is an area of spellcraft that doesn’t get a lot of publicity because for most people it just becomes a natural part of the process. However, if you want to mix up how you do it, try something new, or otherwise let go of the way you were originally taught, this might be a good resource for performing rituals!

What are Sealed Spells?

In the context of magic you usually hear about sealing and binding like binding a person or something from being able to do something. Here we're talking more like a binding contract. This is a binding or seal locks in an action or intent. It is binding in the way an agreement is binding. You have given it firm parameters that it must follow and you have endeavored to finalize the action. You have provided certainty, locked in your answer, sealed the deal.

The benefits of this are inherent in the finality. You have a set thing that now is much harder to alter and is much harder to waver in its purpose. This is no longer some multi-purpose object. It has varitably been christened for this and this alone. The work to undo it will be just as rigorous as the work to do it in the first place. A light cleansing of your materials afterwards might not be enough. You're gonna need the spiritual bleach.

To some extent you might just feel that something needs to be finalized. If you feel it in your gut like you need something to formally end the working, these are what you might be looking for.

More Common Than You Think

This might be more familiar to you than you would initially think. Signing your name on something at the end is a common one, but even in a ritual sphere there are many examples. This is going to be your “so mote it be”, your “Amen”, and your other declarations of finality. Even purely secular situations often have rituals of finality. I think you’ll find that when these things are left out, there is sometimes a feeling of the energy hanging in the air. In a lot of ways it does not feel right. Whether this is the social convention of signaling to everything and everyone present that the ritual has come to a conclusion, or just to announce you’re finished, there is some power to it.

Types of Seals

There are several different ways to express finality in your workings. Here are just a few examples.

Shutting the Door and Sealing the Envelope

If your work involves some kind of lid or package, you can physically seal it. Whether this is corking a jar, sealing with wax, tying a string around something etc. If this is a possibility it is a good way to finalize a spell.

Written and Spoken Seals

Whether this is through signing something like you might finalize a formal contract or expressing that it is finalized verbally. A few examples of this are listed above that you may have heard before, but there is really nothing stopping you from making your own.

Kiss Seals

Sealing with a kiss. Kissing something to finalize has historical precedent and takes no extra tools to complete besides your lips. Whether this is physically using your lips or the other means, this is one option for a quick seal. Just don’t kiss poison.

Burning, Burying, and Bestrewing

Few things are more final than destruction. Once you’ve set the flame, you’ve pretty much confined what you’ve set on fire to that purpose forever. Burying something in the ground would be another example of this. Whether you feel the finality is from returning it to the earth, or because you are sealing it in a tomb of soul, this will certainly signal that it is done. Some feel like things are not complete until they’ve scattered the ashes, in which case throwing something to the wind could be your version of finality.

Sigil Seals

An extension of the written or spoken seals are sigil seals. It accomplishes much the same thing, but can be a little more formal. Some might think this is kind of a stretch, but wax seals, like what might go on a letter, could fall into this category, technically.

a-witch-with-anxiety-deactivate

Different ways to cleanse your space

sage - now, don't use white sage unless you are indigenous to native america, but if you do use this to cleanse your space, remember this is like bleach.. it gets rid of all the energies, negative AND positive

salt - put a bowl near the front door to stop negative energy entering your home, or put a pinch in each corner of your room

essential oils - put in a humidifier and set it with your intention and leave it to cleanse your space AND smell amazing

Incense - pick a incense that resonates with what you are trying to achieve, and light the end of it letting the flame burn for 10 seconds or so before blowing it out, making sure the end is still hot... volia!

Letting fresh air into your space - open up your windows and doors!

Plants - having living plants in your room is a great way to purify the air as well as the energy in your room.

lemon - place wedges of fresh lemon, or lemon essential oils around the space to cleanse it of negative energy

Selenite - walk around with a piece of selenite or leave it in a room to cleanse the space

just tidy up your room!

synthcult

Autumn witchery

Hello everyone! I am very excited about fall this year since last year my nervous system was too upset and anxious all the time to let me enjoy the season! This year I’m planning on having more fun and want to share some fun things to do with everyone! Here are some things you can do to get into the fall spirt!

Collect fallen leaves and write down things you want to release. Fall is essentially the preparation before a metaphorical death, where we shed our woes and life begins to slow down. When we write things on fallen leaves and let them go, we’re essentially expelling what might be holding us back. So! Start by gathering the leaves you want! You might find you’re attracted to a certain kind or multiple kinds! Any crunchy, fallen leaf will do. Then, write a couple of things you want to expel from your life onto the leaves. Each item should be one word per leaf. For example, if I wanted to expel self doubt, I would write ‘doubt’ on the leaf. As you’re writing, think of your intention and pour your release into it. Afterwards, exhale a few minutes of thought/meditation and then release those bad boys! Now, there’s many ways to ‘release’ the leaves, and not one way is the right way, so do whatever you please. You can crumble them up and toss them. You can burn them. You can toss them with the leaves you’re raking. My only advice for releasing back into the world however, is to try and use non-toxic writing utensils when writing on the leaves. If you don’t even want to write, you can put thought into each leaf and release them that way! It’s all up to you!

Gratitude journaling on new and full moons. This is something I need to do myself. We often get so busy with our day to day lives we forget to be grateful for what we have. If you celebrate Samhain, you’ll know the the wheel of the year closes in the middle of fall! It’s a great time to take advantage of the new and full moons and think about what you’re grateful for and log it. Gratitude can be anything, ranging from memories, people and pets, to the items you have, to ideas you have, to yourself, to the universe, etc. List what you’re grateful for and stew on it. Inhale it in and relish in the feelings you get. If you’re like me and really creative, maybe even take a page, decorate it, list things you’re grateful for and hang it up for the season!

Update your altar. I am personally a very avid believe of altars being a good source of our empowerment and energy. The healthier the altar, the healthier the witch. Take this time to dust your altar, cleanse your altar, connect with it and then decorate for the season! It’s the time to get fall colors, to set out stones that attach to fall, to display your favorite fall things and just get in touch with the season. Meditating with your altar can sometimes be very liberating and nice too, so if you’re big on that, go for it.

Use a simmer pot. Simmer pots are used by witches and non-witches all throughout the year! My personal favorite time to use them is during the fall, however, when they have a crispness to them that the warmer seasons don’t offer as neatly. It’s really easy to make a simmer pot and you can put practically anything in it, but most people put fruits and herbs! For fall, apple skins, cinnamon and honey can make the home smell really wonderful and help to bring out opportunity! Put your intention into your ingredients and make it count!

Visit a cemetery. I honestly see this concept a lot in the fall season and I wanted to bring it up because I was taught there are strict rules when it comes to visiting a cemetery that not many young witches know. When you go out to visit a cemetery, it is wise to always be respectful and be aware of the cemetery’s guardian. Each cemetery has one, no matter how young or old the property and they are always watching you. Some are relaxed and don’t mind trespassers/visitors, but some do not appreciate the living coming in without offerings or at all. A good couple of things to bring with you to a cemetery are: - A couple of coins - A shot of alcohol (if able, take the glass/bottle with you when you’re done or find the nearest trashcan.) - Fresh fruit - Fresh bread Do NOT bring: Litter, anything packaged that can become litter, anything illegal or anything that can disrupt the cemetery. Be respectful when you visit!

the-witchyforest

Edible Flowers

Magnolias

TASTE

Ginger

Cardamom

Cherry Blossom

TASTE

Floral

Sour

Nasturtium

TASTE

Peppery

Zesty

Spicy

Pansies

TASTE

Floral

Sweet

Wintergreen

marigoldwitch

🌙 Cheap Witchcraft Tools + Supplies 🌿

🫙 Save all your jars! Spaghetti sauce jars, baby food jars, pickle jars, jam jars — you get the point. You can use these for storage, spells, rituals and offering. Plus they’re easy and cheap to decorate and customize. A little glue, some scrapbook stuff, rocks, moss etc. The possibilities are endless.

🌼 Go outside and collect nature! Sticks, flowers, dirt, rocks etc. Put your collected pieces into your saved jars lol. It’s easy, free and you never know when dirt specifically from a certain area might come in handy for a ritual or spell. Also you can use your foraged finds to decorate your altar(s) and your jars.

🍋 Save your fruit peels, pits and seeds! They’re super useful for spells and rituals + they’re “free” considering you’re eating the fruit it came from anyways. To dry out your peels you can leave them out in the sun or you can place them in your oven on it’s lowest setting (anything under 170°F) for about 4 hours or until dry.

🔮 Make your own oracle deck! It’s really fun and you get to put your own energy into it, making it that much more special. All you need is a deck of cards from the Dollar Tree. I’d opt for the larger flash cards, they tend to be a bit thicker and larger. Some glue and old magazines, scrapbooking supplies or even just photos printed off the internet. Collage those cards up! For extra security you can seal each card with mod podge.