Joe . 27 . he/it/il. This is a sideblog of @cajunfr34k!
I’m a born and raised Cajun. After many years of paganism, I’ve decided to reclaim my heritage and practice folk magic/medicine based on Cajun history and culture.
My practice involves folk magic based on Cajun tradition and Catholicism. My patron Saint is Saint Michael, and he is very prominent in my practice.
While I do not consider myself someone who is totally reconnecting to my Cajun ancestors and heritage as I was born and raised in the culture growing up, I am constantly learning more and more about older and more traditional folk traditions that have faded due to the americanization of the Cajun people. It’s my love for my culture that I wish to preserve and carry with me until I’m burned to ash.
I am still learning my way around decades old traditions lost to time, and I’m very flexible in my practice and willing to share what I learn. Join me on my journey!
I am antifascist as Christ wants me to be, and it's simply the right thing to be. There will be no debating any human rights on this blog or any others.
As I'm unlearning a lot of racism within the witchcraft and pagan community, as well as the within Cajun identity itself, I'm going to be sharing resources I come across to hopefully help others on their way. These will be below the cut.
I don't like having practical tools with only magical use. My athame is a plain old pocketknife. I use it to physically cut stuff. My normal broom is blessed & is what I cleanse with (so is my vacuum, because, carpet). My ritual jewelry is worn daily. My ritual mugs are just my morning coffee mugs, but I pick out which one is best for the working I'm doing (Death work, Ouija mug). And my herbs, hoooo boy, it's my normal spice rack.
Just because it's mundanely practical & useful, doesn't mean it isn't magical. If anything, being interacted with more makes it more powerful.
mutuals can always dm me but be warned i talk like your coworker who is trying too hard to get to know you and my response times are akin to the response times you might get if we were communicating by letter
Pseudo spirituality disguised as "self care" is a marketing tactic pushed by influencer culture and it's just repackaged "wellness culture".
Selling you an easy solution to a single problem isn't fixing anything, encouraging you to buy sweatshop mined rocks and vapid books isn't actually helping you.
Witchcraft is not an exception.
The idea has ALWAYS been salvaging, foraging, remaking.
It has NEVER been about being "clean" or "whole" or "pure". It has never been about taking and buying and exploiting to "heal".
I might be wrong but the Romans were a pretty multiethnic empire even by the time they conquered Judea, and they probably didn't think in terms of black and white. One of the reasons the Roman Empire was so durable as an imperial system was how easy it was to gain insider status within the empire. Rome is not an ethnicity or skin color, but a militarist-imperialist idea.
Anyways isn't the whole point that Jesus assumed the appearance of a man in a world where the average man was a sinner? We can call the Romans Jesus' chief oppressors, but Jesus' chief oppressors are the sinners He came to forgive.
While yes the Romans definitely had a different idea of citizenship, and I’m sure there were darker skinned Roman’s. I’m mainly talking about White Jesus, and how White Jesus looks very similar to the Romans. Or at least how we view Rome because of the renaissance.
Jesus, along with many in Judea, were oppressed based on their ethnicity, skin tone, religion, and place of birth. The Romans, shocking no one, did put value on pale skin and blonde hair. Eurocentric features. They discriminated against the Jewish religion and ethnicity. Those born in the heart of the empire were also privileged and preferred.
And believe me, I believe that Jesus also came to save his oppressors. He has forgiveness that knows no bounds and he even DOES forgive Roman oppressors in the Bible. However, when Christianity has been used to glorify oppression and colonialism it means something when the most popular depiction of God is of his own oppressor. We are washing away Jesus’ roots as the oppressed to make him more palatable to colonialist idea’s.
The commodity of witchcraft will convince you you need fancy expensive tools in order to do magic, but it’s not true! especially if you’re a folk witch!!
capitalism is the enemy of witchcraft. you do not need to practice overconsumerism to to well in your practice. defeat the capitalist thinking in your brain.
I turn my ‘welcome’ mat backwards instead of buying a new one because I didn’t learn until after I purchased it for our new house that a welcome mat facing out welcomes in unwanted energies!
I feed the birds in my yard!
I reflect on an intention when stirring my tea because my thoughts and my heart cost nothing!(and the tea I get is from the break room at work or the yoga studio I attend so it’s extra free)
Hello! My name's Joe, and I recently rededicated myself to my craft. I've gotten increasingly more interested in sigils, and I've developed my own system to make them. They are complicated and beautiful, and I'm still developing my shape language and other associations to make them even more powerful. Overall, very fun for me as an artist!
I base my sigil making on traditional witchcraft, my own intuition, and personal associations. While I won't be going into much detail on my own personal practices (some things I wish to keep private), I figured I could at least work through an example sigil to encourage other people to get more creative.
A little background on me: I am a French-American Catholic folk witch. My research very heavily involves French traditional witchcraft, the Saints, my Ancestors, and God. I am from Louisiana which also heavily influences my practice.
DISCLAIMER: I am not claiming to be an expert on this subject. This is just what’s worked for me. Please take this tutorial as inspiration or simply a share of how I practice. If nothing in this tutorial resonates with you, then feel free to disregard it entirely!
STEP ONE: GATHER YOUR INITIAL SHAPES
This is a pretty common way to make your sigils! I start with an action statement pertaining to my intent. Action statements are statements where your subject is engaging in an activity in the present tense. Examples include “I am strong,” “My energy flows through me.” You do not want to use passive statements such as “I will be strong” or “My energy shall flow through me” because you want to stay in the present, and you want your sigil to be active at all times. By putting it in the future, your sigil will not be activated until a future date which you do not have control over.
After you’ve made your statement, write it out in all capital letters. Eliminate all vowels so that you’re left with just the consonants. Then break down those letters into the shapes that make them. Your shapes might vary based on your handwriting. For example, you might write your capital Gs differently than I.
STEP TWO: MAKE YOUR INITIAL SHAPE
You can make the shapes any way you want. You can make your lines dotted, wavy, solid. Really get creative with the shapes. Make them bigger! Make them smaller! Stretch or squish them out. Mine tend to lean more into symmetry when possible, but that's literally just me. Just create a shape that feels right!
Some people go through several designs before settling on one. For me, though, I just go with the first one I come up with because I don't want to think about it too hard. Additionally, I tend to follow my intuition a lot. This is magic, not an art project!
STEP THREE: ADD MORE SHAPES
THAT'S RIGHT MORE SHAPES BABY. We are filling this out with all sortsa symbols. What I tend to use the most are planetary symbols as well as smaller sigils I make that represent something I wish to incorporate into the sigil. Where these other symbols are placed also correspond with the direction (North, South, East, and West) in which i place them. For example, I put the symbol for the sun in the north placement on my sigil. To me, this means that I want this sigil to represent a beginning with a powerful rising energy.
Other symbols I tend to include are clusters of dots corresponding with a number, sigils I made using the same technique previously described to represent colors, herbs, etc. Some other symbols I use represent spirits, a particular person, or simply letters themselves to represent a word I wish to incorporate.
Literally add whatever symbols you want to!
STEP FOUR: THE OUTER "SHELL"
I typically encase my sigils in circles to replicate particular Saint and Angel sigils simply because it works in my practice. Other shapes you can use to encase a sigil are squares, triangles, octagons, literally whatever shape you want!
After the initial circle is drawn, I will the surround the circle with other symbols to strengthen the sigil as a whole. Again, these symbols can be whatever you'd like them to be! In this example, I placed the letters N, E, W, and S to represent the cardinal directions. I placed big circles in between them, and then three dashes in between those letters and circles.
STEP FIVE: FINALIZE YOUR SIGIL
Typically I will draw a final circle to encase literally everything. And boom! You're done! This is our final sigil:
I hope this at least provided you with inspiration in making your sigils!!
As far as charging them goes, part of charging them to me is physically drawing it out. It's a way of adding my own personal energy into the sigils. That's the first part of charging them for me.
The second part of charging the sigil is after you finished drawing your final product. The way that I charge my sigil post drawing pretty much varies depending on what the sigil is for. Find what works best for you!!
Other advice I'd give is to not think about it too hard and have fun with it. The moment you take it too seriously is the moment you make it harder for yourself. Remember the intent behind your sigil, and don't be afraid "mess it up." Real life is not perfect, real life is messy. Nature is messy. Lean into the imperfections.
EXAMPLES OF REAL SIGILS IVE CREATED
I'm sharing these just to give you more of an idea of how I make genuine sigils in my practice. My practice is ever growing and I hope to make them even better in the future !!!
Hello! My name's Joe, and I recently rededicated myself to my craft. I've gotten increasingly more interested in sigils, and I've developed my own system to make them. They are complicated and beautiful, and I'm still developing my shape language and other associations to make them even more powerful. Overall, very fun for me as an artist!
I base my sigil making on traditional witchcraft, my own intuition, and personal associations. While I won't be going into much detail on my own personal practices (some things I wish to keep private), I figured I could at least work through an example sigil to encourage other people to get more creative.
A little background on me: I am a French-American Catholic folk witch. My research very heavily involves French traditional witchcraft, the Saints, my Ancestors, and God. I am from Louisiana which also heavily influences my practice.
DISCLAIMER: I am not claiming to be an expert on this subject. This is just what’s worked for me. Please take this tutorial as inspiration or simply a share of how I practice. If nothing in this tutorial resonates with you, then feel free to disregard it entirely!
STEP ONE: GATHER YOUR INITIAL SHAPES
This is a pretty common way to make your sigils! I start with an action statement pertaining to my intent. Action statements are statements where your subject is engaging in an activity in the present tense. Examples include “I am strong,” “My energy flows through me.” You do not want to use passive statements such as “I will be strong” or “My energy shall flow through me” because you want to stay in the present, and you want your sigil to be active at all times. By putting it in the future, your sigil will not be activated until a future date which you do not have control over.
After you’ve made your statement, write it out in all capital letters. Eliminate all vowels so that you’re left with just the consonants. Then break down those letters into the shapes that make them. Your shapes might vary based on your handwriting. For example, you might write your capital Gs differently than I.
STEP TWO: MAKE YOUR INITIAL SHAPE
You can make the shapes any way you want. You can make your lines dotted, wavy, solid. Really get creative with the shapes. Make them bigger! Make them smaller! Stretch or squish them out. Mine tend to lean more into symmetry when possible, but that's literally just me. Just create a shape that feels right!
Some people go through several designs before settling on one. For me, though, I just go with the first one I come up with because I don't want to think about it too hard. Additionally, I tend to follow my intuition a lot. This is magic, not an art project!
STEP THREE: ADD MORE SHAPES
THAT'S RIGHT MORE SHAPES BABY. We are filling this out with all sortsa symbols. What I tend to use the most are planetary symbols as well as smaller sigils I make that represent something I wish to incorporate into the sigil. Where these other symbols are placed also correspond with the direction (North, South, East, and West) in which i place them. For example, I put the symbol for the sun in the north placement on my sigil. To me, this means that I want this sigil to represent a beginning with a powerful rising energy.
Other symbols I tend to include are clusters of dots corresponding with a number, sigils I made using the same technique previously described to represent colors, herbs, etc. Some other symbols I use represent spirits, a particular person, or simply letters themselves to represent a word I wish to incorporate.
Literally add whatever symbols you want to!
STEP FOUR: THE OUTER "SHELL"
I typically encase my sigils in circles to replicate particular Saint and Angel sigils simply because it works in my practice. Other shapes you can use to encase a sigil are squares, triangles, octagons, literally whatever shape you want!
After the initial circle is drawn, I will the surround the circle with other symbols to strengthen the sigil as a whole. Again, these symbols can be whatever you'd like them to be! In this example, I placed the letters N, E, W, and S to represent the cardinal directions. I placed big circles in between them, and then three dashes in between those letters and circles.
STEP FIVE: FINALIZE YOUR SIGIL
Typically I will draw a final circle to encase literally everything. And boom! You're done! This is our final sigil:
I hope this at least provided you with inspiration in making your sigils!!
As far as charging them goes, part of charging them to me is physically drawing it out. It's a way of adding my own personal energy into the sigils. That's the first part of charging them for me.
The second part of charging the sigil is after you finished drawing your final product. The way that I charge my sigil post drawing pretty much varies depending on what the sigil is for. Find what works best for you!!
Other advice I'd give is to not think about it too hard and have fun with it. The moment you take it too seriously is the moment you make it harder for yourself. Remember the intent behind your sigil, and don't be afraid "mess it up." Real life is not perfect, real life is messy. Nature is messy. Lean into the imperfections.
EXAMPLES OF REAL SIGILS IVE CREATED
I'm sharing these just to give you more of an idea of how I make genuine sigils in my practice. My practice is ever growing and I hope to make them even better in the future !!!
Happy Summer Solstice! I'm still researching what holidays feel good for me to celebrate, so I did not do anything today. I hope others did something cool though!
I refuse to believe in the idea that Mary is a virgin. Not that I don't believe miracles exist, but I believe it on the basis that I reject the idea that everyone must be "pure" to receive blessings of that caliber from God.
I saw the tag about worshipping the Mississippi and I got excited, so a little bit of niche local lore for me:
In Ocean Springs, Mississippi, there's a Walter Anderson art museum featuring a recreation of a carving called "Father Mississippi." The first time I saw that was when animism really clicked for me as a concept.
Like, wow, from Michigan to Mississippi we are all connected. Every corner of the world knows the others in some way. Absolutely beautiful. And the Mississippi River itself sustains SO MUCH land, so many species. Environmentally speaking, nothing makes more sense to worship than our water systems.
So yeah, great museum. Worship the land, the river, and all her tributaries.
Indigenous peoples of the US have been doin' it. We still be doin' it. Features of my ancestral lands in the North and Southeastern woodlands are their own living things. If you're curious about it, look into who's land that is, reach out to see how you can honor those things while not stepping into closed cultures (assuming you're non-native) and accept the responses.
A good way to honor the rivers, mountains and lands is to be aware of people who have traditional stewardship of these areas and how to get involved in preservation efforts.
I am very passionate about sigils that I’ve decided I will make a dedicated tutorial about how I go about making them! im not comfortable sharing the ones I actually use so I will be using an example one.
