Cauldron of Stars

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[butterflypeaflowertea]

so like everything is real and we just have to deal with it huh

[gorogoroiu]

“Some people are as fragile as butterflies and sensitive and it’s your responsibility not to destroy them. Just because you can.”

— Marisha Pessl (via quotemadness)

[draculasdaughter]

“Zmrok Nové pařížské módy”, Victorian Costume, 1896.

[trollkatt]

The “black book”

Photo: Aftenposten/Scanpix

A “black book” - svartebok in Norwegian - is a handwritten magical-medical manual similar both to the classical grimoire and to the more recent neo-pagan “Book of Shadows”, but not to be confused with either. The “black books” constitute their own distinct tradition, and are surrounded by their own particular mythos. In the Scandinavian context, the term “black book” (Dan. and Norw.) or “black arts book” (Swed.) refers to “black magic” or “black arts”, that is, to maleficia. They do contain other types of magic as well, but also beneficia was regarded as witchcraft, and repeated acts of “white arts” such as blessing and healing through magic, put you in the same dire straits as any other witch until the repealment of the witchcraft laws in the mid-19th century.

Although the content can vary greatly from book to book, they nearly always contain charms, herbal recipes, spells, and rituals for curing sick or bewitched livestock and humans. They can also contain spells and rituals for causing sickness and bewitchment, and you can usually find formulas for protection and for luck in love and hunting and such in them, as well. Other things that occur often are instructions for various divination- and scrying methods, instructions for finding treasures and catching thieves through magic, and occasionally also non-magical medical and practical advice and recipes. Many authors and compilers use runes as secret writing.

Several of the old books that we can find in museums and other collections also contain bits of warped and distorted solomonic magic, cabbalistic or hermetic formulas, sometimes written in something that used to be Latin several copies previously. A rare few books contain such kind of magic exclusively. The mangling of the text is caused by the unwritten rule that says to copy exactly what the book you are copying says, so, if there is an error there, it will be included in any copies made, and in copies of the copies, and in copies of the copies of the copies, and so on - and, since most of us do make errors, what we end up with several generations later is often pure nonsense. I myself, word nerd as I am, have “sacrilegiously” corrected spelling errors when copying, without this affecting my work (actually, I have made one true and one corrected copy of all the books I have been passed). I know of others who have tried doing the same and found that the corrected versions don’t work for them.

Some books also contain Christian hymns and prayers, and one can also occasionally find instructions on how to renounce the Christian faith and make a pact with the devil. Almost a tradition of their own are the “black books” of the soldiers, which usually contain spells for things like how to become invincible, how to dull enemy swords or make enemy bullets miss the target, how to win at gambling, and how to make a girl willing. Not surprisingly, it is among soldiers and younger sons with no income or inheritance to speak of in sight, one can find contracts made with the Christian devil or some other helpful entity.

The number of pages can run from one or two - that is, one single sheet - to over a hundred. A few of the older books are so alike in contents that it is fair to assume that they have a common origin, or that one is copied from the other, but most of them are unique compilations of charms and spells that often seem to have been written down one by one as they were encountered. The oldest known “black book” is the so-called Vinjeboka, which dates back to 1480-90 - that’s her in the top picture.

The “black book” magic is not the same as traditional folk practice even though there is an extensive overlap between the two. This becomes clear when one compares the “black book” material with the material collected directly from the practitioners. Both various types of wise folks as well as regular farmers could own a “black book” back in the day, but it seems to have been most used by people of a certain social standing, such as teachers, clerics, clergy and soldiers. From the folkloric material it can be guesstimated that during the 18th and 19th centuries, one could find several such books in every village, and some of these are now to be found in both private and public collections. The University of Oslo has made available online facsimiles of over 100 books from their collections, and 44 of them are (as I write this) fully transcribed, along with other material in connection to witchcraft and to the witchhunts of the 16th and 17th centuries (see links below).

From around the middle of the 19th century one could buy printed collections of “black book” material in bookstores, discretely wrapped in brown paper, but traditional cunning people are still copying their teachers’ books and/or compiling their own books by hand or on their computers, although I’m unsure whether anybody call them “black books” except in jest. The contents is very much the same eclectic mixture as before, occasionally with the addition of more recently developed ideas and methods, like the use of semi-precious stones and neo-pagan-style interpretation and use of the runes of the futharks.

The main part of my own “black book” is virtual and arranged like a website. It covers Scandinavian folk tradition only, and contains a thirty-odd folders, one for each main subject (tools, plants, methods, etc.), currently with a total of 1262 files, mostly html pages, each of which covers one particular subject (each problem got its own page, each implement, each plant, etc.). On each page there is an evergrowing collection of traditional charms, formulas, instructions, and so on directly related to the subject of the page. These pages are interlinked, so that any page that mentions a subject that has its own page is linked to that page. Included in this part of my “black book” are also some illustrations, both “inherited” and by me, and a few dozen reference articles. It is a very practical “book”, and I use it almost every day. The non-virtual part of it is rather meager compared, and consists mainly of a handful of reference books, some treasured old paper scraps with charms or such on them, and a couple of “black books” handcopied the traditional way.

I also have digital facsimiles or facsimiles of copies of ca. 30 older Norwegian, Icelandic, and Swedish “black books” (whole or fragments) and a collection of a few hundred Scandinavian charms, spells, recipes, and instructions of various kinds that have no clear origin, or that for some other reason haven’t made it to my own “black book”. A charm’s history is important to me. I like to be able to say that I got this and this from such and such, who in turn got it from such and such and so on. There is power in that.

Apart from all this, I have an even bigger - I believe - collection of articles and such covering folk magic and magical medicine etc. etc. from other cultures’ traditions, such as South-American curanderismo, Italian segnatura, Afro-American conjure, and others. Lately I have been looking a bit into both Finnish and Philippine tradition. I prefer learning directly from other practitioners, be that in person or through what they share of their knowledge online, in folkloric archives, and, on a few rare occasions, in books. I have read very few “learned” works, since they in my experience, unless written by actual practitioners, have a tendency to build partly on misconceptions.

Notes & links

There is also the mythical or folkloric “black book”, the so-called Cyprianus, after which several real “black books” have been named and which they are claimed to be copies of. More about the Cyprianus mythos or folklore in English here.

The Witchcraft Archive including facsimiles of “black books” at the site of the University of Oslo (in Norwegian)

Vinjeboka (the “Vinje book” or “book from Vinje”) - the link takes you to a pdf facsimile Link updated!

Some relevant books in English

Mary Rustad, The Black Books of Elverum, Galde Press, 1999

Kathleen Stokker, Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the New Land, Minnesota Historical Society, 2007; particularly chapter 4 “The Black Book”

Owen Davies, Grimoires, A History of Magic Books, Oxford University Press, 2009, chapter “Black books in the North”, p. 123, ff

[witchofapollo]

Beginner Lessons: Misconceptions in Witchcraft

Witchcraft is the Same as Wicca

This is a common misconception but it’s not true! Wicca is a religion created by Gerald Gardner with sects., rules, and a heirarchy. Being invented in 1954, it is  a rather recent creation at that! Witchcraft, though maybe not known by the same name, has been practiced for thousands of years and is the act of manipulating the energy around you to achieve a goal. That being said, you can be a witch and also be wiccan, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

Witchcraft is All About Worshiping Satan and Sacrificing Animals

This is an unfortunate rumor caused by pop culture sensationalizing the craft. While some witches do, in fact, have a relationship with an entity called Satan (and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that as long as they don’t harm themselves or others), most do not believe, or at least worship, in it. While sacrificing animals is done in a humane way in various closed religious practices, most do not.

Magick Requires My Blood

While blood magick is a thing, it is super rare and blood is not necessary in any cases. In fact, it is discouraged as it can host a lot of dangers, both medically and magickally!

I Can’t Be Christian and a Witch

This is a lie! I know several witches who integrate witchcraft into abrahamic religions. The way I see it, your relationship with God and Jesus Christ is extremely personal and will never be the same as with anyone else. It’s nobody else’s damn business, either!

I Need to Find a Coven

This is also a misconception, not helped with pop culture. While a coven definitely has some benefits, it is never necessary. Solitary work and study has a lot of benefits as well as a coven isn’t for everyone. 

My Pet is My Familiar

Ah, how I wish this was always true. Truth be told, it is very rare for your house pet to be your familiar. A familiar is a being who guides and helps you through your magickal work. Your cat sitting in the room while you perform a spell, while it might indicate that your cat is attracted to the energy (or just simply likes being in your presence), is not necessarily a sign of them being a familiar. Familiars can come in any shapes and sizes such as any animal or even something not of this world such as a being that resides in the astral. Such familiars like this can even stay with the same family for several generations.

Some of these things are things that I wished I was told as a young witchling. I hope this helps anyone who needs it!

[jennycalabro]

Things have been crazy lately so I just wanted to take a moment and remind you to love yourself because you are important!  No matter who you are or where you come from! Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise!

I decided to make a step by step “How-to Jenny’s Witchy Brew” for Self Love ~ Rose Soy Milk Tea <3

Things you will need: -Rose Tea: I get mine at 99 Ranch Market but it’s essentially just dried rose hips so if you have rose hips that you can dry out, that will work too! You will want to use 6-8 rose buds, the more you add the stronger the flavor!

-Organic Soy Milk: This can be regular milk or almond milk, I prefer unsweetened organic soy milk. If you decide to use soy make sure it’s organic! Brands such as ‘Silk’ isn’t good, even if they claim it’s organic, for some reason it burns and wont cook right. It’s gotta be the real deal! For this recipe you only need 1 cup. -Honey: Any kind of organic honey will do, if you have herbal honey that’s even better for adding more florals to your tea! I usually add about 2-3 teaspoons, but feel free to add to taste! -Cinnamon & Nutmeg: This is optional! I like to add just a pinch of both spices to add a little kick to my tea. If you don’t care for spice try ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract instead!

-Sugar: This is also optional, I like my tea to be a little on the sweet side & since we are using organic unsweetened soy milk it helps to really sweeten it up! I only use barely a ½ teaspoon,  but just add to taste!

-Small Pot

-Mesh Strainer: For removing the flowers once it’s cooked.

-Your Favorite Mug! Mine is a black mug with my astrological sign gold leafed into it!

Before starting, take a moment to close your eyes, clear your mind, breathe deeply through your nose and slowly release through your mouth (do this a few times). Visualize letting go of any negativity or weight you may be carrying on your shoulders…now…

<3 LET’S GET BREWING! <3

1- Pour soy milk into pot, turn heat on low

2- Add rose tea, gently crumble a couple of the buds

3- Add cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar

4- Add desired amount of honey; while you slowly drizzle it in feel free to draw symbols with it such as hearts or infinity symbols- whatever you feel is right for helping to instill your manifestations of self love into your tea!

5- Stir your brew clockwise! While slowly stirring visualize the self love that this tea will bring you & say some positive affirmations about yourself such as:

“I love the person I am, I am strong & caring, I am creative, I am beautiful inside and out…” say whatever best suits your needs for self love and take a moment to appreciate the wonderful person you are! <3

6- Let your tea brew for approximately 10 minutes on low stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. DON’T LET IT BOIL! You want to create an infusion of the flowers which means a longer slower heating process. Boiling will mean scorching the flowers and milk!

7- You’ll notice the rose buds will begin to loose their color, remove your brew from the heat to let it cool and allow the tea to steep for about 3 minutes.

8- Remove roses with mesh strainer and compost.

Enjoy! As you drink, visualize your tea as a pink white healing light of love and remember your affirmations taking deep breaths in-between each sip! <3

I hope you all enjoyed this & that your tea was delicious & full of positive energy! Feel free to try making this with other flowers which have different properties such as: lavender & chamomile for happiness and relaxation! Much Love <3

[mirandamoonmagick]

The Eyes of the Rising Signs 👁

♈️ Aries Rising people have a focused, and motivated gaze. Their stare can sometimes look distant or glazed over, but behind this, there’s intention. There’s a certain level of innocence as well, with being the first sign of the zodiac. They often have big, glossy eyes, that might point more upwards.

♉️ Taurus Rising people often give off a very seductive look in their eyes. This comes from a place of determination to get what they want, but at the same time, there’s a gentleness. They often have more almond shaped eyes. They may have a lot of warm tones in or around their eyes, and long eyelashes.

♊️ Gemini Rising people give off a very curious look in their eyes. Very intense, with a passion for discovery. They want to learn as much as they can, always questioning. When they smile, it seems like their eyes twinkle. The color and shape of their eyes might often look like it changes, due to their mutability.

♋️ Cancer Rising people often give off a very nurturing, and childlike energy through their eyes. They make you feel comfortable and protected when you talk to them. They’ll never judge you, only listen. They often have more light colored eyes, or if not, cooler tones, and a rounder shape.

♌️ Leo Rising people have the brightest eyes out of the zodiac. Just like their ruling planet, the Sun, their eyes light up like a spotlight, shining down on themselves. It may seem like they’re the center of attention, even when they’re not. They often have warm toned, fuller eyes, with a lot of red and gold.

♍️ Virgo Rising people have a very inquisitive stare, almost like they’re trying to figure something out. This comes from their analytical nature. They might often seem lost in their own thoughts. Even when they’re still examining, they seem to already know the answer. Their eyebrows tend to stand out.

♎️ Libra Rising people have the most alluring gaze of the zodiac. They flirt with their eyes, sometimes without even realizing it, and their stare just seems to pull you in. They’re the biggest romantics, and they seem to stay young forever. Eye shape and color varies greatly, but the charming gaze is all the same.

♏️ Scorpio Rising people have very mysterious eyes. They can be incredibly hard to read on the surface through that steely stare. They often have darker tones in or around their eyes that point more downwards. Almost looking sad, even when they’re not. Their eyes might also sit closer to their nose bridge.

♐️ Sagittarius Rising people often give off a very insquisitive look in their eyes. They’re ready and excited for any adventure you throw at them. Their free-spirited nature might make it seem like their eyes are smiling, even when they’re not. Eye color varies, but there’s always a sparkle. Especially when their eyes are darker.

♑️ Capricorn Rising people have a very determined look in their eyes. They just seem like they know what they want, and they’re going to do everything they can to get it. This can sometimes come across as intimidating to people who just met them. They tend to have more narrow eyes, or if not, they squint them.

♒️ Aquarius Rising people have an “other-worldly” gaze in their eyes. They might sometimes wear glasses, or in one way or another, look smart. Like they could answer any question you throw at them. They tend to have more cat shaped eyes, with one sometimes being smaller, or more closed than the other.

♓️ Pisces Rising people have an incredibly dreamy, and glossy look in their eyes. They might often get asked if they’re tired, or if they just got done crying, even if they haven’t. They tend to have gray undertones in their eyes, and there’s a lightness about them. Their mysticism looks like they’ve seen a thousand lives.

[astrologymarina]

Mercury Aspects - How we use our minds

Mercury&Sun - The narrator (shadow: the chatterbox)

Mercury&Moon - The poet (shadow: personal bias)

Mercury&Venus - The counselor (shadow: agreeing with the popular opinion)

Mercury&Mars - The prankster (shadow: verbal disputes, satire)

Mercury&Jupiter - The philosopher (shadow: the liar, the know-it-all)

Mercury&Saturn - The scientist (shadow: slow learner)

Mercury&Uranus - The inventor (shadow: being misunderstood)

Mercury&Neptune - The intuitive (shadow: the daydreamer, naive mind)

Mercury&Pluto - The researcher (shadow: the stalker, the conspiracy theorist)

[hillbillyoracle]

Having a rough go of it so I made myself this list. Hope it helps someone else too.

[recoverysuggest]

Recovery doesn’t happen all at once. Be happy for the little improvements, no matter how small. Any movement towards recovery/wellness is important!

[peachysuggest]

you will unlearn all of the bad habits you taught yourself and you will grow into someone stronger than you ever imagined you could be

[photos-of-space]

Moon Cycle.

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

Fun little thing about medieval medicine.

So there’s this old German remedy for getting rid of boils. A mix of eggshells, egg whites, and sulfur rubbed into the boil while reciting the incantation and saying five Paternosters. And according to my prof’s friend (a doctor), it’s all very sensible. The eggshells abrade the skin so the sulfur can sink in and fry the boil. The egg white forms a flexible protective barrier. The incantation and prayers are important because you need to rub it in for a certain amount of time.

It’s easy to take the magic words as superstition, but they’re important.

[shredsandpatches]

The length of time it takes to say a paternoster was a typical method of reckoning time in the Middle Ages. It’s likely that whoever wrote this remedy down was thinking of it both as a prayer and a timespan and that whoever read it would have understood it the same way.

[ladytemeraire]

I wonder if this shows up in other historical areas besides medicine?

I ask because I have a very Italian, very Catholic friend who was once describing how she makes pizzelles. They’re cooked in a specific press, similar to a waffle iron, long enough to get light and crispy but not burnt, and in her own words: “I don’t know the exact time it takes to cook them in seconds, but I usually do either two Hail Mary’s or an Our Father and a Glory Be.”

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

I would be extremely surprised if medieval people didn’t use prayers while cooking. You don’t want to roast an egg for too long, have it explode, and get hot yolk in your eye. :P 

I know that church bells were definitely used as timekeepers. 

[spiderine]

Before oven thermometers existed, one way to check the temperature of your oven was to stick your hand inside and recite an Our Father. The length of time before you snatch your hand out was timed by how far you’d gotten in the prayer. The shorter the time, the hotter the oven. So you knew that if you wanted a hot oven to bake bread, you wanted your hand out by “kingdom” (for example) but to slow cook a stew, you might want the oven cool enough to get to “trespasses”.

[petermorwood]

This popped up in “Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook” as well, though there the timing method wasn’t prayer but X verses of “Where Has All The Custard Gone?”

Other timing methods are “a while” (approx. 35 mins) and “a good while” (variable, up to 10 years, which the book suggests is a bit long to let batter rest before making pancakes…)

[stitch-n-time]

All absolutely standard, and also varied from region to region. The use of prayer was more common than most, since the Catholic church had a monopoly on… well, pretty much everything. And all the prayers were in Latin, and at a specific cadence, so the effect is similar to watching the second hand on a clock today.

[kingfucko]

it’s important to note that to the medieval people the prayers were important because of timekeeping AND god. like, i think as modern people we do tend to want it to be “just timekeeping, they weren’t just superstitious idiots, they had a good reasonable scientific reason!” but it’s also important to remember just how culturally steeped in a mystical religion they were, a relationship with christianity entirely unlike the modern relationship found in modern american culture even amongst the most religious people. i have no doubt that in the medieval mind, they were aware of the prayer being the time it took but also if there had BEEN another way to measure that time, the prayer would have been held to be preferable and important in its own right because of the importance of spiritual assistance in worldly things like bread-baking

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

Definitely, this is a great point! I was talking to somebody in the comments who was saying that medieval medicine was mostly bunkum because it involves spirituality, supposedly meaning it couldn’t also have logical basis behind it. But that’s a really modern way to see it. To the medieval worldview, those things aren’t contradictory. They’re part of each other. Think about how many medieval Christian scientists were monks, nuns, and priests.

[elfpen]

*INHUMAN SCREECHING*

M Y    T I M E    H A S    C O M E

You guys don’t understand how excited it made me to read this post, I literally wrote my master’s thesis on this exact topic.

STORY TIME

Sometime in the 10th century in Anglo-Saxon England (for context, this is before the Norman Conquest and near-ish to the reign of Alfred the Great), a dude named Bald asked another dude name Cild to write a book. Not just any book. A leechbook, which was essentially the medieval version of WebMD for practicing doctors. BUT NOT JUST A LEECHBOOK. This leechbook was gonna be the damn Lamborghini of leechbooks. This thing was going to be split into two parts, the first dealing with external medicine and the second dealing with internal medicine—something that was unheard of at the time. It was going to be organized (head to toe, like all the good leechbooks were). It was gonna be nice (leather and vellum). It was gonna use all the best ideas (from all over the known world). And the whole thing was going to be written in Anglo-Saxon. Now, a few medical books had been compiled in Anglo-Saxon before, but none like this. This one was going to be EPIC. And it was—and still is.

Bald’s Leechbook (also goes by the more boring but more informative MS Royal 12 D XVIII over in the British Library) contains a lot of medical remedies. A lot of them rely on things like prayers and chants and odd charms, like one for a headache, which recommends plucking the eyes off a living crab, letting the crab back into the water, and wearing the eyes about your neck in a little sack until you feel better. However, it’s worth pointing out that the really wild remedies, the stuff that makes absolutely no freakin’ sense, is most often recommended to treat ailments that are hard to treat even today—migraines, toothaches, cancer. These things are really painful or deadly and, without modern medicine, almost impossible to treat. So are you going to make up some nonsense to make your client at least feel like they’re doing something, and hey, if it sort of works, it works? Of course you are. You want to help people. Even if it sounds crazy, what else are you going to do? You have to try something, and the people who are suffering are willing to try anything.

But there’s also things that make complete sense. To echo concepts that have been mentioned by commentators above, there is a recipe that calls for the recitation of the paternoster while boiling a honey-based salve meant to treat carbuncle. The book instructs the physician to bring it to a boil, and sing the paternoster three times, and remove it from the fire, and sing nine paternosters, and to repeat this process two more times. A century ago, historians read the use of the paternoster as a magical incantation, but today, most agree that in lieu of a stopwatch, the paternoster is just meant to make sure you don’t burn the honey.

BUT THAT ISN’T NEAR THE COOLEST THING.

Now, this book was compiled by a master physician (we don’t know if it was Cild himself or if Cild was the scribe for an unnamed author) who was compiling recipes that had been written down for some time, and had, as many things do, gone through various permutations over the years. Many came from Greece or the western Mediterranean, and had been adapted for local English horticulture and herbs. Some came from around what is now Germany, and some ideas came from farther away in the Middle East (King Alfred was a sickly king; some scholars believe that he had his physicians seek out cures from all over the world in an attempt to treat himself). But there is one recipe that has only ever been identified in England. Not only has this recipe only ever been identified in England, it’s only ever been identified in this one manuscript. When translated into modern English, it reads as follows:

Work an eyesalve for a wen [stye], take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together, take wine and bullocks gall, of both equal quantities, mix with the leek, put this then into a brazen vessel, let it stand nine days in the brass vessel, wring out through a cloth and clear it well, put it into a horn, and about night time, apply it with a feather to the eye; the best leechdom.

For those who don’t know and/or are lucky enough to have never had one, a “wen” or a stye is a bacterial infection that manifests like a boil or a cyst that on the eyelid. They hurt something awful, and can cause larger infections of the eye. They are usually caused by Staphylococcus aureus. 

With me? Okay. Fast-forward to 1988. A former biologist turned historian called M.L. Cameron decides to take a look at this old medical leechbook to see what he can see. He takes a good look and says “Lads I do believe these Anglo-Saxon leeches weren’t nearly so daft as we thought they were” (he did not and probably would never actually say that, I’m paraphrasing). Cameron was particularly interested in the recipe above. As a scientist, he knew a few things:

Garlic and cropleek (leek or onion, or another related plant) have been known to have antibacterial qualities for centuries.

Wine (alcohol) also has antibacterial qualities.

Bullocks gall (literally bile taken from a bull) is known to have detergent properties, and has long been used as an additive to soap for particularly tough stains.

A brazen vessel, or a vessel made of brass, contains a good amount of copper in it. And that copper, when left to sit around for, I don’t know, about nine days, would have plenty of time to react with the acids in the onion and garlic and the tartarates in the wine to create copper salts. 

Coppers salts, as it happens, are cytotoxic, meaning they kill everything: tissue and bacteria.

What an interesting find.

Fast-forward again to 2015. A paper is published by a team from the University of Nottingham, who’ve been working on an ‘Ancientbiotics’ project to investigate ancient medical remedies and see if they actually work. They’ve turned their sights to the Anglo-Saxons, and are, as was Cameron, particularly interested in this recipe for an eye salve. Without boring you with the finer details of the experiment and its various trials (read it yourself!) I will spoil the ending by telling you that they discovered a few things:

This recipe, which was over 1,000 years old when they tested it, worked.

It worked well.

It worked extremely well. 

So well, in fact, that (in a lab setting) they even got it to kill Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or as it’s more commonly known, MRSA. MRSA is a modern superbug that has built up a resistance to the antibiotic Methicillin. And this goddamn Anglo-Saxon witches’ brew freakin murdered it.

Now, as an advocate for modern medicine and sound scientific method, I’m not about to say that we should go throwing this salve on everything in 2019, because it is, if anything, just a starting point for modern scientists. This salve is still incredibly crude by modern standards and comes with a lot of potential problems. But as a historian… it works, you guys, it really works.

Medieval physicians were not idiots. They believed in magic, they believed in all things supernatural, they believed in all those things that are ‘unreasonable’ or unpopular today, and they practiced them too. But they also interacted with the real world with brains and intellects as sharp if not sharper than yours and mine. They were smart, they studied, they talked to each other in Latin and Greek and Arabic and Anglo Saxon. They made old recipes better and came up with brand new ones. They tried dumb stuff and they tried smart stuff. They didn’t have access to even the smallest fraction of the information we have at our fingertips today, and yet they created things like this. 

To this day, no one knows who created the eyesalve recipe. And no one truly understands why this is the only copy of it. If it worked so well, why isn’t it plastered to the headings of every medical textbook from Alfred to Victoria? Speaking personally, I would argue that it has to do with language. Not so long after Bald’s Leechbook was written, the French invaded England and took over. Latin and French became the language of the court, and while Anglo-Saxon lived on throughout the country, and certainly lay doctors would have used Anglo-Saxon books daily, the language of formal English medical education was Latin. Oxford and Cambridge were late to the medical ed game after Salerno, Bologna, Paris, and Montpellier, and naturally fell in step with continental schools as a result, using Latin almost exclusively, and sometimes Greek or Arabic. 

Point being, by the time medical licenses and medical college degrees are a thing in England, not only does almost no one of university-eligible class speak Anglo-Saxon anymore, no one has use for those Old English texts, because they don’t get you your degree, and you can’t make a living as a doctor without a degree and doctor’s license. And no one’s going to translate an old Anglo Saxon text into Latin when Avicenna’s newest old hit, now in Latin, is fresh off the boat from France.

All that to say:  Never write something off because it’s old. 1,000 years is a long time ago, but human ingenuity and intelligence are hardly modern inventions. The science of the world hasn’t changed; only our tools and our perspective.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk

Further reading:

The 2015 Ancientbiotics report: A 1,000-Year-Old Antimicrobial Remedy with Antistaphylococcal Activity

NPR: ‘Ancientbiotics’ Researchers Look For Old Fixes To Modern Ailments

Mental Floss: 20 Anglo-Saxon Remedies from Bald’s Leechbook

Read a paper about how scholars are building on the work of the Ancientbiotics project to better understand how to apply ancient ideas effectively to modern medicine.

Look through Royal 12 D XVIII for yourself! Bald’s eyesalve recipe is on f. 12v and looks like this:

[killerchickadee]

What I took away from this post is Jews have no way of telling time.

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

Check the notes, I’m pretty sure people have added some old timey Jewish timekeeping.

[normal-horoscopes]

THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT WHEN I SAY THAT MAGIC AND SCIENCE FOLLOW THE SAME IMPETUS

[samwisethewitch]

dorm friendly magick for broom-closeted student witches

Got roommates that aren’t into witchcraft/magick? Can’t burn incense in your dorm room? Don’t have time for elaborate rituals between studying for exams and writing papers? I’ve been there. Here are some of my favorite undercover spells and rituals for witches living that college life. 

Journal Magick

Keep a manifestation journal! Find a journal that really speaks to you and makes you feel good every time you open it, whether it’s a bulky leatherbound tome or has a holographic cover and hot pink pages – what matters is that you feel a connection to it. 

Every morning, write down the things you want to manifest in your journal in the present tense, as if they had already happened. [Note: this works better if you are writing the same thing every day for at least a few weeks. Consistent intent is key!] 

For more information on this type of manifestation, just search “scripting” on YouTube and you’ll find approximately 642934 videos on the subject. 

This is a really great technique for closet witches, because no one is going to be suspicious of you writing in a notebook – plus, it’s normal for people to want to keep their journals private.

Work with correspondences just like you would for a normal spell! You can print out photos of herbs, crystals, tarot cards, astrological signs, or moon phases that correspond to your intention and glue them into your journal (or draw them, if you have artistic talent). You could even get an essential oil that matches your intention and dab a drop of it on the page. You’re essentially creating an altar dedicated to your intention, just on paper instead of in a physical altar space.

Tap into the magick of color by writing your intentions with a pen in a corresponding color (green = abundance/wealth, pink = love and friendship, yellow = academic success, etc.).

Tea and Coffee Magick

Tea and coffee are already essentially potions, and no one is going to think twice about a college student drinking a lot of coffee/tea. 

Coffee is associated with grounding and protection, and it adds energy to any spell it is added to. Black tea is associated with protection, courage, and abundance. Green and white tea have their own, slightly different magickal uses. Based on these correspondences, you can use coffee and tea as a base for undercover potions!

For mental clarity and memory retention, brew a mixture of black coffee, lion’s mane, chaga, and ginger. For a caffeine-free alternative, brew an herbal tea with rosemary and peppermint. 

To cleanse negative energy and release stress, brew a mixture of black coffee, Ashwagandha, cinnamon, tulsi or basil, and Eleuthero. This is based on a Four Sigmatic blend, lmao.

For a sneaky prosperity spell, brew a mixture of black coffee, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla. Yes, that is essentially pumpkin pie spice, and yes, you can use a pre-mixed pumpkin pie blend instead of buying the individual spices.

I could go on, but you get the idea. You can customize your morning beverage to suit any magickal or spiritual need. 

Most plants have medicinal uses that are the same or similar to their magickal uses. So if anyone asks, tell them you’re adding these extra herbs for their nutritional and/or medicinal value. 

You can also charge your tea or coffee with crystals. Just set a small crystal associated with your intention (amethyst for mental clarity, black tourmaline for protection, citrine for prosperity, etc.) next to the mug for a few minutes, or place it on top of your coffee maker. Be sure to charge both the crystal and the drink with your intention!

Candle Magick

If your dorm lets you have candles then congrats, because candle spells are both super powerful and a super easy way to hide your magick in plain sight.

Find a candle in a scent and color that match your intention. For example, you could use a pink, rose-scented candle for a love spell. 

You can find custom spell candles made by witches for witches on Amazon and Etsy, and these have the added bonus of having been specifically created for magickal use. Some of the businesses I’ve personally had good experiences with are Art of the Root (available on Amazon), Esoteric Arts (available on Etsy), and Crystal Journey (Amazon). 

That being said, I’ve gotten good results with $1.99 scented candles from Walmart, so please don’t feel like you need to spend a fortune on special candles for your spell to be successful.

In a pinch, an unscented white candle can be used for any intention. You can get these at the dollar store, and it’s never a bad idea to have a few on hand.

Oil Magick

Your dorm has a no-open-flames rule, so candles and incense are out of the question. No problem – you can get similar results with essential oils. 

An essential oil literally contains the concentrated essence of a plant. Magickally speaking, this makes them a powerful way to add some oomph to your spells. They’re also commonly used for aromatherapy, so your roommate probably won’t be phased by you diffusing them in your dorm.

You can create custom EO blends the same way you would create an incense blend, by combining different plants based on their correspondences. You can also buy pre-mixed blends online if you’re feeling lazy or if you have a certain blend you know you’re going to use a lot like, say, a focus-enhancing blend for studying.

Another option, and one that’s more traditionally witchy, is to use magickal oils/ritual oils. A magickal oil is an oil that has been created for a specific magickal purpose – it’s like a spell in a bottle. A ritual oil is created for a specific use in magickal ritual. You can find tons of different ways to incorporate these oils into your daily life for some very subtle witchcraft.

You can create your own magickal oils by combining herbs, essential oils, and crystals that match your intention, or you can buy magickal oil blends from witch-owned businesses. Art of the Root has my absolute favorite oils – I have like six different blends, and they’re all ridiculously powerful.

Some ways you can use magickal oils: 1.) wear them as a body oil, 2.) diffuse them like you would an essential oil blend, 3.) use them to anoint and bless objects, like tests or study guides, 4.) add them to spiritual baths, and a million more. [Note: many magickal oils come with real herbs and resins in the bottle. These chunky bits could damage a diffuser, so do keep that in mind.]

Personally, I wear magickal oils on a daily basis in the place of perfume, since most of the ones I own smell really good. As I apply them, I say a small incantation to power them up. For example, if I’m wearing an attraction oil, when I put it on I’ll say something like, “I am powerfully attractive to the people and things that will improve my life.” Which oil I choose to wear depends on the day and the area of my life where I want some extra help. 

Tech Magick

The nice thing about being a witch in the 21st century is that, if all else fails, you can keep your entire magickal practice contained on your laptop and/or phone. And even if you’re not doing 100% of your witchcraft in a virtual space, you can still use your technology as a tool in your practice. 

Pinterest is the ultimate visualization tool. You can create a virtual altar to a deity or spirit guide by dedicating a Pinterest board to them, or create vision boards for the things you want to manifest, or create a brainstorming space to plan your full moon rituals… the possibilities are endless. 

Keep your Book of Shadows and/or manifestation journal in a Word document. If you’re really concerned about privacy, you can even password protect these documents. Another pro of an electronic Book of Shadows is that most word processors have a “search” function that lets you look things up more easily. 

Make a devotional playlist for a deity or spirit guide. Making Spotify playlists for my deities is one of my favorite devotional acts! I’ll put together all of the songs that remind me of that deity, and I can listen to it anytime, anywhere to instantly connect with them. And don’t be afraid to ask your deities what type of music they like – you may be surprised by the answer!

If any other witches have similar tips, feel free to add onto this! This is just stuff that I’ve found works for me, but magick is deeply personal and everyone will do things a little bit differently. 

And not to shove my content in everyone’s faces, but I did just post a spell to enchant your school notebooks on my YouTube channel, so check that out if you’re interested!

[my-witchy-journal]

My Darling, this is just geniuos! Thank you! 😘😘😘

[noise-vs-signal]

[endlessregression]

noise-vs-signal: Selected plates from “Sylva Philosphorum” (17th Century), as published in “Alchemy: The Secret Art” by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola.

[servantofthefates]

The Three Best Cards in Tarot

For Abundance

The Empress – Material Comfort

King of Pentacles – Financial Stability

Ten of Pentacles – Lasting Wealth 

For Love

The Lovers – Destined Love

Ace of Cups – Overflowing Love

Two of Cups – Mutual Admiration

For Health

Temperance – Body in Balance

Strength – Emotional Fortitude

Four of Swords – Peaceful Mind

For Reconciliation

Six of Cups – Second Chances

Three of Cups – Fateful Reunions

Page of Cups – Peace Offerings

For Improvement

Six of Pentacles – Elevated Status

Six of Swords – Leaving Turmoil

Eight of Cups – Moving On

For Knowledge

The High Priestess – Second Sight

The Hermit – Earned Wisdom

The Hanged Man – Heightened Awareness

For Movement

The Chariot – Moving Forward

Eight of Wands – Accelerated Developments

The Fool – New Journey

For Manifestation

The Magician – Reshaping Reality

Wheel of Fortune – Fulfilling Destiny

Ace of Pentacles – Creating Beginnings

For Recognition

The World – Achieving Fame

Six of Wands – Fleeting Triumph

Three of Pentacles – Appreciated Efforts

For Happiness

The Sun – Ultimate Joy

Ten of Cups – Fairytale Endings

Nine of Cups – Emotional Satisfaction

[aphrodicted]

A few days ago I finished my Aphrodite altar. I recycled a lot of things I had in my house, so I wanted to give you some tips and show you how I created it.

What you need:

🐚 Bowl or other glass surface,

🐚sand (in my case, I used small stones),

🐚pink candle,

🐚pink flowers,

🐚sea shells

🐚and pearls (optional I didn’t use them).

First of all, I do not have space to put or make an altar, so I opted to get a crystal bowl where to build the altar. The size or shape of the bowl (or other object you use) does not matter as long as everything you want to put on your altar fits inside.

When you have the crystal bowl, look for sand. I live far from the beach and I can not take “real” sand. I decided to use small white stones that we use for the aquarium as the base of the altar. These stones come in bags and can be found anywhere (and they’re really cheap).

In the middle I put a pink candle. It doesn’t matter what size is your candle. I used this because was the only pink candle I had. What you can’t avoid is the color: it must be pink (or red). Before placing it, I cleaned it with some olive oil and drew a sigil of Aphrodite (you can draw it on the trunk or at the base of the candle). I used this from @strangesigils.

Around the candle I placed some rose petals and other pink flowers. Abunch of shells too. Some people add pearls, I didn’t have them, but they can also be added.

And it’s done! Just be careful when you light your candle and where you put the altar if it’s made of glass, please.

(Excuse my English, I’m from Spain and I may not have written some things correctly.)