Cackling Cauldrons

A space for Witchcraft and Wonder ✨️

[cacklingcauldrons]

This blog has been resurrected from a deep, deep slumber!

For those who have awaited my return, hello again my dearies.

For those who are new to this space, welcome.

🔮✨️

[cacklingcauldrons]

✨️Minor Arcana Suits✨️

🪄 Wands - desires and goals

🏆 Cups - emotions and feelings

🗡 Swords - logic and mental energy

🪙 Pentacles - money and wealth

[tarot-aesthetic]

the power of the witch - 1971 british documentary.

[vile-lithium3]

[proper-enrichment]

Hey witch, here's a reminder: you don't have to show and tell every spell, ritual, or offering you do. Yes, it might look aesthetic, but you dont have to whip out your phone to snap a pic of it. Sometimes there is magic in the privacy of your craft.

[crazycatsiren]

Also a reminder: there are more of us who keep far more things private than things we share than you might think, and I know this might be a bit hard to believe in this day and age of social media.

[breelandwalker]

Also another reminder: your spell / offering / ritual / charm does not have to be instagram-worthy to be effective and you don't need to ask other witches whether it's good enough or done correctly. No one has to approve of it but you.

[stagkingswife]

Yet another reminder: Speaking of asking other witches whether something is good enough… you don’t have to witchcraft by committee. Nothing you’re thinking of doing, be it a spell, a ritual, or an offering needs to get the opinion or approval of anyone else*. Making your own decisions for your self is the first step to really gaining confidence in your craft.

* Unless, of course, you are undergoing specific training or belong to a specific teaching tradition that says otherwise.

[dailygrimoire-deactivated202109]

Manifestation Boxes

We’ve all heard of jar spells, sachet spells, crystal spells… but recently I’ve seen a few people making entire box spells. 

What these are, are basically just all of those things I listed, except you can continuously open it and alter it based on what you need at the time, almost like an altar in a box. I want to explain more about them and what exactly they’re doing since the people I’ve seen using them don’t go into detail. 

Here’s an example of the kind of box I’m talking about:

I’ve seen people use various types of boxes or holders/containers, they’re just always clear and can open/close, but they don’t have to be clear, it’s just pretty to look at that way. 

What They Are

They can be a few things. It’s common that people will have one dedicated box or area that they write notes or find things to leave in the box to communicate with their guides/ancestors/anything else, so that’s one thing it is. It’s a mini altar: people will sometimes use their altars to draw things into their lives, which is exactly what these boxes are being used for. Essentially, they work by communicating to the universe what you want, just like a spell or a ritual would.

How To Use Them & What to Put in Them

First, you need a box that you like.

I would recommend cleaning it with soap and water and letting it dry before using it if you’ve had it for a while or bought it from the store. 

You can set it out under the Sun/Moon for cleansing/charging if you’d like, or you could ring some bells inside of it, burn some incense or herbs, whatever you do to cleanse. 

You’ll be putting salt inside of it as the base. You’ll need to change out the salt for fresh salt periodically since salt absorbs energy. Don’t throw away the old salt. The salt is absorbing all the energy you’re putting into the box, throwing it out would symbolize throwing out the energy you put into it, which you want to come into your life, not leave. Keep the salt and use it either in food, other related workings, salt sprays, etc. Don’t let anyone else use it unless you want them to have some of the stuff you’re trying to bring into your life or if they’re family. This is why I say to clean the box first, nobody wants to eat dirty salt. 

You should put things in the box that symbolize magnetism, grounding, you, and charging. I’ll list some potential items below. These all represent manifestation and drawing things towards you. Without magnetic and grounding objects, energy blows like smoke, it’s all over the place, but when you have them it’s more like a laser; straight edged, has a direct target. Something that belongs to or represents you is important because you’re the target. If you want to include others in the box, say you’re making a manifestation box for the whole household, you would include things of every person and pet in the house. Charging is obvious, you can’t use your phone if it’s not charged; can’t use a ritual if it’s not charged. 

Place notes, objects, herbs, symbolic items, or anything else that feels right, in the box. I recommend writing at least one VERY specific note describing exactly what you’re trying to manifest and place it in the box, or you can do this with smaller notes as the ideas come to you. Don’t leave the universe room for interpretation, it can be a little too creative sometimes.

Every time something starts to manifest, write a thank you or leave/burn an offering for the universe or whatever energies helped it to happen. You don’t have to put it in the box. Whatever offering style you normally use is fine. 

I keep mine right next to my bed since it’s a personal area, but any personal area or a place you are at frequently is fine. Under the bed on the side you sleep in is great. If you’re trying to manifest money, your workplace would be great. Manifest self-love or beauty/inner beauty related things, the bathroom or place you get ready would be great, etc.

If you discover something you put in the box might not serve you, you can take it out. This is used specifically so you can take out/put in. 

Correspondences

Grounding:

Rocks. All kinds of rocks, one’s you’d find in the back yard. Granite, marble, black/gray/brown rocks, etc. I’d put one in all 4 corners of the box. Imagine the rocks “weighing down” the box, keeping it grounded, keeping it from floating.

Nature in general. 

Magnetizing:

Magnets. 

Coffee isn’t technically magnetizing, but it adds energy and amplifies things. Keywords for coffee would be amplifies, adds energy, invigorating, speed, faster results. Make sure it’s coffee grounds, not liquid coffee. Alternatives could be any invigorating thing like ginger, wasabi?, spicy things, etc. Check the symbolism and practices before using anything. 

You:

Hair/nails

Anything you feel that resembles you that you’ve owned for a while and have an attachment to. Example: Mine would be a pillowcase I’ve slept on every night since I was a kid, but obviously that wouldn’t fit in a small box. 

Charging:

This is where the crystals come in. I make crystal grids or place them around the notes I put in the box.

Selenite.

Quartz that corresponds with what you’re doing. General, use clear. Love, use pink. etc.

Generally any charging or amplifying crystal works. You could use an absorbing crystal if you wanted it to absorb the energy in order for you to take it out & carry it around for the same intentions you put in the box.

Make sure any crystals you use are safe to put in salt. 

[wildeirvane-witch]

Crow counting

Edit: I didn’t explain what crow counting was, oops! It’s basically a way of divination using the number of crows in a murder (what a lovely word for a flock of crows btw), taking them as an omen or sign. This only really works if crows aren’t a usually occurrence (as how it works with most signs)

One crow-

Bad luck, loss, sorrow

Two crows-

Good luck, a major change, joy

Three crows-

A wedding or celebration, the birth of a girl

Four crows-

New beginnings, the birth of a boy

Five crows-

Money coming, good business

Six crows-

Major money change, could be a loss or a gain

Seven crows-

A secret, mystery, or curse

Eight crows-

Life changing experience (usually positive)

Nine crows-

Love, positive recognition

Ten crows-

Major turn around or change in life

Eleven crows-

News, surprises, secrets revealed

Twelve crows-

Good luck, completion, fulfillment

Thirteen crows-

Completion, the end of a journey

more info from my grimoire notes! Hopefully this one will get as much attention as the salt post (that’s been blowing up oh my gods!), it’s kinda crazy how much people like salt!

[cacklingcauldrons]

Some witches need to hear this:

Just because you've taken a break from the craft or your life has become busier, doesn't mean you are failing. Every practice waxes and wanes over a lifetime. You're still a witch if you haven't cast a spell in a year. You're still a witch if you haven't cast a spell in TEN years. There is no grand jury. There is no magical quota. Take your time. Be kind to yourself.

[hexeandharmony]

The Blue Moon 🌚 31st October 2020 🎃

Taken on my telescope 🔭 🌙✨

Verbenalune.com✨

[jospivey-deactivated20190429]

[cacklingcauldrons]

Offerings to Hecate

Hecate is the Greek goddess of witchcraft, spirits, herbalism and the crossroads. She is frequently worshiped by practitioners of witchcraft.

Offerings to Hecate include: -candles (especially dark colours) -fire -moon water -herbal teas -ritual knife or athame -garlic -horse shoes -keys -animal bones -horse hair (specifically a mare) -snakes skin -dirt of a crossroads -graveyard dirt (from the yard itself, not a specific grave) -multiples of 3

Feel free to add more.

More about Hecate

[ayellowbirds]

speaking as a Jew, i’m extra-super dubious of all that stuff that talks about cartoon witches being an antisemitic stereotype. I can get where the thing with the nose is coming from, but the claims about the hats are based on flimsy claims that require a lot of mental reaching. The hats that Jews were forced to wear were not a universal thing, and I’ve yet to see any evidence that they were part of the cultural consciousness by the time the image of the pointy-hatted witch became common.

[ayellowbirds]

The biggest points against the hat hypothesis:

Wrong time period: witch hats as we know them seem to have only started appearing in art around the 17th-18th century; in the period when the Judenhut was well-established, witches in art just wore whatever was common for women of the region.

Wrong region: the pointed witch hat originated in English art, as far as i’ve seen. Antisemitic laws in England mandated badges, not headwear.

Wrong gender: Jewish hats were mandated for men, not women—illustrations of witches with pointed hats very rarely included male witches, until fairly recently.

Wrong shape: there are many styles of mandated Jewish hat throughout history, but few of them are even a near match for the very specific look of the Witch hat.

You know what kind of hat does closely fit?

The hat in this painting (“Portrait of Mrs Salesbury with her Grandchildren Edward and Elizabeth Bagot” by J.M. Wright; circa 1675) was “a type worn by affluent women throughout Britain at this date”. Look at that hat. Any modern viewer looking at this painting might think it was supposed to be a character created by J.K. Rowling.

It’s a match in design, gender, region, and most importantly, time period: by the time that pointed witch hats started to appear in artwork in England and English colonies, this style of hat would have been associated in the cultural consciousness with elderly women, especially those who were clinging to decades-old fashions.

The easy, simple answer to where the witch hat came from: it’s exactly what a woman with all the stereotypical qualities of a witch would have worn in the first place, in the time and place the trope originated. 

Old-fashioned but not by several centuries, severe and somber, and popular with a class of women that people would have spread nasty rumors about in the first place (so many accusations of witchcraft were directed specifically at women who were independently well-off, whether out of simple envy or else scheming).

[ayellowbirds]

Seemed like about time to bring this back up.

[sinbadism]

Another very obvious and often explicitly stated basis for the CLOTHING of the cartoon witch is Puritan costume from the 18th century… seeing as Puritans were famous for their witch trials. The green skin, curly hair, big nose, warts etc are all definitely at least racialized things. Though big nose and warts are associated with age the combined picture is pretty much just a racial caricature.

[ayellowbirds]

The green skin is a product of old makeup practices. To make something look extra-pale on black & white film, you didn’t use white, because the monochrome film was blue-sensitive:

This is why so many classic movie monsters were rendered as green—because public appearances and the rare color image of he actors in full makeup would be a blueish-green. Filming for black & white even affected the props and scenery. This is what the Addams Family’s house really looked like:

[breelandwalker]

Important input on the witchy costume debate, from a Jewish person who’s clearly done a bit of homework on the origins of pointy hats and green makeup. (And who also seems to be a pretty cool person into the bargain.)

@ayellowbirds - Thank you for this! :)

[agwitow]

I’ve reblogged this before, but it’s got new info, which is great

[bai-xue]

I’d also argue that, though certain aspects of the stereotypical witch align with antisemitic tropes, it’s far more likely that witches’ stereotypical looks actually emerged by being the polar opposite of what the beautiful, and therefore ideal, 17th century woman looked like. This was to emphasize that a witch was the OPPOSITE of an ideal woman, and she could thus be placed in opposition to the beautiful, ideal heroine.

Where beauty (according to 17th century standards) was young, witches were old. Where beauty had fine, delicate features, witches had exaggerated, rough features. Where beauty was relatively unmarred (a rarity in pre-vaccination days), witches had moles and other marks. Where beauty had silky blonde hair (a treasured prize in Renaissance times, to the point that women falsely lightened their hair or wore wigs), witches had rough black hair.

As I said, some of these line up with antisemitic tropes. However, I’d argue that associating Jews with these tropes was a result of already-established patriarchal beauty tropes that had been ingrained in northern Europe for centuries. The fact that the stereotypical Jewish woman happened to defy the beauty ideals of northern Europe was used as an excuse to further oppress Jewish people, not the other way around.

In other words, I’d guess that it went like this:

“Ugliness/evil looks like this” -> “Some Jewish women (who we hate) look like this” -> “here’s proof that Jewish women are ugly and evil”

Rather than:

“Jewish women look like this” -> “we hate Jewish people” -> “Ugliness and evil looks like this”

Of course, once both tropes (ugly witches, ugly Jews) were established, I imagine that they fed into one another, but I’m dubious of the claim that the source of the ugly witch was the Jewish woman, especially since northern European ideas of beauty and fears of malevolent witches seem to go back further than northern European stereotypes of the ugly Jewish woman.

[bai-xue]

Augh, and COMPLETELY forgot to talk about this, but the stereotypical witch outfit? It comes from traditional English brewsters/alewives, aka, female beer-brewers.

Who used brooms mounted above the door as a way to signal their trade to passerby: 

And who made their trade making strange concoctions in cauldrons: 

And who happened to wear hats just like this:

Brewsters/alewives used to have a monopoly on beer-making. They handed down brewing secrets from mother to daughter and basically controlled the alcohol market. And men weren’t terribly keen on that - they wanted in on this immensely lucrative, influential field. There were some male brewsters, but the trade was overwhelmingly female, to the point that even male brewsters were still called brewsters - a female noun. 

So what do men do when they want to push women out of a trade? They demonise them. 

Suddenly the broom isn’t just a business sign, it’s a tool for going to meet the devil. The cauldron isn’t just a tool, it’s a place to create evil. The hat isn’t just a trade uniform, it’s a mark of malevolent intent and arcane knowledge. 

Coincidentally, many women who became brewsters/alewives became independently wealthy and quite powerful locally. They didn’t need to marry and could provide for their entire households with their trade. They could grow old without marrying, or they could stay unmarried after their first husband dies rather than remarrying. They could also pull strings and influence things in their favour, making local politics ‘mysteriously’ go their way.

And so the stereotype of the ugly spinster brewster-witch is born.

And, as I’ve said above, ugly women look a certain way: harsh, marred features, dark, tangled hair, and above all, old.

Note old Mother Louse up there. She was a well-respected brewster in her town, with plenty of influence, but here she is already being portrayed with stereotypical witch features: a big, hooked nose, and a pointy chin, hollow eyes, sharp cheekbones (not a good thing in premordern times - beauties had rounder faces, as sharp cheekbones were a sign of hunger or oldness). Mother Louse isn’t being portrayed as Jewish, but as an elderly, ugly spinster, who engages in the lucrative, powerful - but suspect - business of brewing.

Know who else this happened to? Midwives. Another female trade, passed down from woman to woman, dealing in business secrets from which men were barred - and this in regard to the most mysterious power of all: the power to bring life into the world. And midwives do pretty well for themselves, too: plenty of families are willing to pay a bundle to make sure their babies are delivered safe and sound in a world with high infant mortality. Just like male physicians, midwives knew how to create tinctures and mix herbs, but now, once again, rudimentary chemistry and herb-lore become demonised when women are the ones doing it. Now, if your baby is born sick, deformed, or dead, it’s clearly the spinster midwife’s doing, full of spite because she has no children of her own.

Anyway, there’s your witch history for the day. The hooked nose and black hair are already something of a stretch, but the claim that the typical witch hat is somehow linked to anti-semitism and not brewsters is totally ahistorical.

[rosemarywaterwitch]

Witches that’s some handy information right there

[animatedamerican]

This is what I’ve been saying.

[ladybugbites]

why are magic words so satisfying... arcane, tome, enchant, conjure, sorcery, spellbound, cast, charge, grimoire..

[starrywisdomsect]

The Munich Manual of Demonic Magic is a fifteenth century grimoire primarily composed in Latin. It is currently in the collection of the Bavarian State Library in Munich. The text focuses largely on demonic and necromantic magic, but contains sections on conjuration, astrological magic, and divination as well.

[satanurqween-blog]

If I started selling these, would anyone buy? It's a long beaded necklace crocheted with thread. I like to use crystals and meaningful charms in my jewelry so it can be easily enchanted. I could make them customized to intent... Let me know lol. I'm seriously obsessed with them.

[thestrawberrynight]

today's mood: reading historical books about the history of magic and classical novels in my own library, drinking hot coffee, sitting under the warm blanket and listen to the sounds of rain

[faeryqueenwitch]

🔮Sacred Stone Divination Spell🔮

🔮 Spell of the day: June 6

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🔮 You’ll need:

Nine flat, smooth stones of similar size

Silver paint and a paintbrush 

A drawstring pouch large enough to hold all the stones

🔮 In some folklore, the summer months are deeply connected to cairns and stone circles. You can bring this aspect of the warmer months into your life by using stones as a method of divination for just about any question at hand.

🔮 Place the stones in front of you, and paint each with a different symbol or word, as follows: YES,NO,EARTH,AIR,FIRE,WATER,SUN,MOON, AND SPIRIT. (or SELF). Once the paint has dried,place all nine stones in the bag. Close your eyes, and think about the question at hand. Reach into the bag, and withdraw a stone. Think about how the answer applies to your situation.

🔮 YES and NO are self-explanatory. EARTH represents family and the security of the home. AIR symbolizes wishes and dreams. For FIRE, consider passion and outside influences, while WATER represents healing and cleansing. If the answer to your question relates to power and energy, you may see the SUN stone appear, and the MOON stone is tied to intuition and wisdom. Finally the SPIRIT/SELF stone indicates that the answer to your dilemma can be found within you, and is tied to the choices you make for yourself.

🔮 If a single stone doesn’t tell you what you need to know, draw three stones instead, and see how the answers relate to each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~