How to Protect Your Home with Simple Witchcraft (Beginner-Friendly)
Your home is more than a place — it’s a sanctuary. A container for your energy, your rest, your dreams, and your magic. Witchcraft doesn’t have to be complex to be powerful, and home protection is one of the gentlest ways to weave intention into your everyday life.
Here are a few simple, beginner-friendly ways to shield and bless your space:
🌿 1. The Doorway Cleanse
Your doorway is the threshold between the outer world and your inner sanctuary.
Try this:
Sweep the area with intention (even an energetic sweep works).
Whisper: “Only peace enters here.”
Place a small crystal like black obsidian or smoky quartz near the door.
A single word of intention can change the energy of the space.
🕯️ 2. Candle Protection Ritual
Light a candle (white or black works beautifully) and walk through your home slowly.
Let the flame guide you.
As you move, say:
“With light and warmth, I bless this home.”
Even one minute with a candle can reset the energy of a room.
🌙 3. Salt & Moon Water Blessing
This is as old as witchcraft itself.
Sprinkle salt gently across thresholds or windowsills.
Use moon water (from a recent full or new moon) to wipe down doors, mirrors, or altar spaces.
It’s simple, but incredibly grounding.
🍃 4. Herb Smoke or Simmer Pot Cleansing
You don’t need fancy tools — herbs from your kitchen work perfectly.
Try smoke cleansing with:
rosemary
bay leaf
lavender
Or simmer a pot with lemon, cinnamon, and clove to shift stagnant energy.
🧿 5. Protect With Symbols
Draw a protective symbol — a rune, sigil, or even a small pentacle — above your front door with:
oil
moon water
or even your finger
Invisible doesn’t mean ineffective.
💬 Final Thought
Witchcraft isn’t about how elaborate your tools are — it’s about your intention.
Protection magic is quiet, comforting, and deeply personal.
Your home deserves to feel safe, warm, and yours.
Snapdragons were believed to offer protection against witchcraft and evil eye. Dried snapdragons look very similar to skulls and can be used as charms against aging. In ancient Greek it was thought that wearing a snapdragon in your hair or on your neck would offer protection. During medieval times many castles would plant snapdragons around the entrance with the intention of protecting the castle (warding). Hang some snapdragons above a babies crib to repel bad spirits and nightmares
In Russia many women used snapdragons in ointments to reverse aging and appear graceful. In victorian times it was thought that hiding a snapdragon on you would make you appear more alluring.
Venus Flytrap
Venus flytrap are literal carnivores plants. Many witches use them as wards with the intention of eating negative energy. Use them to eat or bind negative energy. Many practitioners like to use Venus flytrap to bind people or negativity. As well as program them to feed off negativity.
I've also known people who use them as a sort of "trip wire" for curses, evil eyes and hexes. Though if you're not good with plants then your plant could just be dying and not have gotten an hex. You can tell the difference by whether it comes back to life when you take care of cleansing and necessary needs of the plant itself.
Angelica
Dried Angelica can be great for breaking hexes and banishing energy. Many practitioners use this flower and it's many parts in spells. It's believed that if it grows around a house or building it will protect it from witchcraft. Angelica root has also been used as amulets for protection or gambling.
In many European countries it was thought that Angelica would protect from sicknesses. The herb itself is used in many medicine even today. That's where it gets the name "angel" from. One of its best uses would be for breaking hexes. When used properly it can be the breaker.
‼️do not ingest if pregnant‼️
Carnation
Carnations are thought to be associated with the Holy Mother Mary and Diana the Goddess of the Hunt. Both were symbols of purity and Innocence. In many countries including eastern asian and Europe carnations are associated with healing and mothers love. In victorian flower language yellow carnations were seen as a symbol of rejection.
In parts of Europe red carnations were used to protect homes as well as repel unwanted visitors. Dried carnations can be used in many types of spells such as warding, protection, healing and love.
Yarrow
The herb is known for its protective uses as well as it's medicinal. It was said that the warrior Achilles learned of the herbs medicinal uses from the great teacher Chiron. In Ireland the herb was thought to disperse plagues and evil spirits. Was also thought to carry stocks of it for safe travels. Hanging yarrow throughout your home or near a babies crib is said to repel negative spirits.
In traditional Chinese folklore yarrow was used as a tool for divination. Due to how long lasting the flower is yarrow is also a symbol of long lasting love. You could use it in satchets or bouquets on wedding days or dates to promote a love that will last years.
Agrimony
Agrimony can be used as protection from negativity this includes witchcraft, evil eye, spirits and people. In wards they can cause a rebound on the sender of a hex. Carrying it around is thought to protect you wherever you go. These beliefs are common in English folklore and voodoo(closed practice) .
In old English the herb is thought to be put under a pillow for sleep. In ancient northern Europe the herb was thought to cure a lot of ailments. Anglo-Saxons had also believed that herb would reveal witches. Scotland had thought the herb could cure those who had been affected by fairies. This would mean unknown illnesses. The herb itself is seen as a kinda cure all.
‼️Please do intense research before ingesting or foraging ‼️
Some notes from my BOS of weeds / local plants that can be used in one's craft. Includes magickal correspondences, traditional uses (medicinal and culinary), and some of their folklore.
Disclaimer at the end !!
𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊
Acorns- the nuts of oak trees. They're made of one seed covered by a tough shell with a cap on top. These nuts can be eaten and are turned into flour to make breads and pastas. Much about acorns are unknown as they are mainly unused in everyday life, but we do know that they contain a high fiber content which has been used to treat bloating, diarrhea, stomach pains, and other digestive issues. Because these nuts come from oak trees they’ve been a symbol of great wisdom and longevity in many cultures such as Celtic and Nordic. Many people have worn necklaces with acorn charms on them to bring protection
• Protection, prosperity, growth, wisdom
Bull nettle- Thick stock and toothed leaves with stiff prickly stinging hairs, the flowers are small, white, and covered in hispid. The seed pods are lightly coloured and cylindrical, containing ~3 seeds. Touching this plant will cause a stinging, burning, or itching sensation that will last for hours. The seeds from the seed pods are edible and taste nutty but need to be harvested with extreme care as to not sting yourself. The seeds can be roasted or ground into a "cornmeal." The root of bull nettle is edible, it's similar to a potato but tougher and the core is so tough it should be discarded.
Binding, banishing, warding, baneful (to cause pain)
Cattails- Cattails are semi-aquatic plants that consist of multiple long spiked leaves with one center spike holding a sausage-shaped head that is filled with cottony seeds. Their rhizomes can be turned into a flour with a high protein content and the shoots can be cooked and eaten. The stems and leaves can be turned into paper. A poultice from the roots can be used as an antiseptic, for burns/cuts, and to reduce inflammation. When harvesting this plant please do not overharvest, it’s a very important part of a wetland’s ecosystem ! Also, always make sure the water near the cattails is clean because cattails filter pollutants out of the water so if you plan on consuming the plant, you could also be consuming those pollutants.
Catchweed- Also known as cleavers, hitchhikers, goosegrass, or sticky weed. Catchweeds are branchy, square stems that latch onto other plants and buildings with small hooked hairs on their leaves and stems. They have tiny, star-shaped, green or white-ish flowers with four petals. They also have small burrs that contain a few seeds that are covered in hooked hairs so they can latch on to animals to disperse seeds. For those who want to risk getting pricked, catchweed is edible. Young leaves and stems can be cooked and eaten like spinach. This plant is also in the same family as coffee, meaning that you can dry and roast the seeds in their burrs to make a lower-caffeine coffee substitute and teas. Poultices have been made with the whole plant, as with tea washes from dried leaves, in many cultures for light burns, small wounds, and eczema. It has a cooling effect so it’s also used in infusions for bug bites, stings, and poison ivy.
Energy, binding, commitment, protection during travel
Chickweed- Also called chickenwort/weed, winterweed, and simply ground cover as that’s its primary use in modern society. Long stems with pointed, oval-shaped leaves and tiny white star-shaped flowers that resemble carnations. Its star-shaped flowers earned it the botanical name “Stellaria media”. Its flowers and leaves are both edible and are very popular in salads, soups, and stir-fries. It has a taste similar to sprouts that you’d use in a salad. Chickweed salves are used for skincare, poultices for poison ivy, and teas for digestion. Historically, it's been used for skin ailments like itching, dry skin, and even bruises or bug bites from a tisane/tea of the stems applied to the affected area. In European folklore, it was said to help promote a happy, balanced family and love life. This is believed to come from how chickweed grows so closely with all its stems intertwined but in a way that promotes each part to grow healthy, so it promotes everyone in a household getting along with one another while having their own sense of individuality. It’s also associated with perseverance (like most weeds I’ll admit), this is because chickweed is seen growing everywhere, in yards, in forests, on piles of dirt. If it sees an opportunity, it’ll take it and thrive year-round.
Clovers- white, balled flowers with three to four small, round leaves. Every part of this plant is edible, the leaves and flowers are sweet and vanilla-y so they are good in teas and sweets. Clover has been used to ward off fevers and used in tisanes/teas for inflammation. Clover has been associated with good fortune for centuries, especially four-leaved clovers. A shamrock is a symbol of a three-leafed clover representative of the Christian Holy Trinity, it’s also believed that the Celtic druids thought shamrocks to be significant because they had three leaves possibly representing the underground, earth, and sky.
Luck, prosperity, happiness, faith
Creeping Speedwell- Teeny tiny violet/baby blue flowers with light yellow middles, it is incredibly fast-growing and can be found in most yards. Speedwell is edible and good in salads, pestos, and smoothies. Tea is made from the leaves and flowers to help clear congestion, allergies, and coughs. Some add it to their baths to help with their allergies and inflammation, inflammation is also helped by a poultice. In some folklore, it’s said that a tea or ointment from speedwell could help one with psychic visions and faerie sight. Before I truly knew the folklore behind speedwell I had this sense that it would help with your clairsenses.
Abundance, divination, psychic/clairsense work
Creeping buttercup- Buttercups are toxic and will leave blisters when raw so they must be cooked or dried before being consumed, even then it's not recommended to eat. A poultice of the (boiled) leaves is used for inflammation and wounds and a tea from the plant is used for its analgesic properties, but be wary of the blisters that may occur. Buttercups used to be used to ward off faeries, many farmers would plant these around their cows to prevent them from being stolen from the fae. There are a lot of stories relating buttercups to cows which is very very cute but ironic because buttercups are actually toxic to many animals! For its many associations with children, fairies, and coyotes across various cultures it can also be related to mischief
Youth, happiness, love, protection from fae, mischief (jinxes/hexes/glamours)
Creeping charlie- Also known as ground ivy. Creeping charlie has square stems with dark, rounded or fan-shaped, toothed leaves. It has small blue or lavender, funnel-shaped flowers that grow in clusters of two or three in the spring. Creeping charlie is edible and has a long history of being used in beer and cheese, it tastes subtly minty as it's in the mint family. Young leaves are good in salads to freshen them up and it's also really good in teas and sweets. There is a risk of it being toxic if consumed in large quantities though. For centuries now it's been used in teas to calm a cough, been said to help with headaches, and has been used on the skin to reduce pain and soothe inflammation. Some have turned it into a snuff and used it for congestion, kind of like Vaporub. It was actually brought over from Britain to the Americas for its medicinal uses, now it’s one of those weeds people will spend tons of money trying to get rid of. Alike creeping buttercup, it’s said that some may have used this to ward magick from their livestock and themselves. Some say it’s good to use to find out who has cursed you or sent the evil eye your way and in some stories, people would drink it as a tea to get rid of their shyness.
Protection from magick and spirits, divination, clarity, courage
Deadnettle- My favourite weed :) Square stem, fuzzy leaves that occasionally are red/purple at the top, with tiny tube-shaped light pink flowers. Despite technically being a nettle, it’s not a true nettle so very few people will have a reaction when touching this plant. Deadnettle is part of the mint family and every part of it is edible, despite that though it's not very minty and is floral and sweet. My favourite parts are the tiny pink flowers which have sweet nectar in them and are good in teas, syrups, sweets, and jams. The leaves are good in teas, smoothies, pestos, and salads. A poultice or salve can be made from the leaves for wounds and teas can help with allergies. This plant is sometimes called purple archangel because it pops up around the Feast of the Apparition when it was said St. Micheal appeared. It’s associated with determination because this lil dude will grow anywhere, even in spots with the worst quality soil.
happiness, determination, peace, healing
Dandelion- Dandelions are bright layered yellow flowers with toothed leaves that grow pretty much anywhere there is enough dirt to get their roots in. The entire plant is edible, the flowers are slightly sweet making them good for salads, syrups, and sweet. The leaves are slightly bitter but that can be lessened when harvested young or boiled, they're good as spinach replacements and can be dried for teas. The flowers can also be turned into dyes. The plant's name can be literally translated to 'healing herb' as it has been used in many cultures for it's gut health and detoxifying properties. Teas and tinctures from leaves are made for a diuretic and flowers are made into salves or beauty products to treat acne/eczema and to reduce inflammation. About dandelions being diuretics - the name dandelion comes from the french name dentdelion (tooth of the lion) but there’s actually a second French name, “pissenlit”, which means piss the bed !!
Daisy- Daisies are low-growing flowers with thin, long, white petals and yellow disc florets (middles). Common daisies are edible, these are really found growing anywhere even in your lawn. Leaves can be used in salads or stir-fries and flower heads can be pickled or used in salads. Wines, soups, and teas are also commonly made from daisies. The flowers have a slightly bitter taste but look pretty in dishes. Daisies have been used in teas for coughs, bronchitis, and common colds. It's also been used to "stimulate the digestive system" to promote appetite. Daisies have been into lotions and other skincare products to treat rashes, eczema, and other skin issues. Daisies came to be associated with love and motherhood through it being the flower of Freya, innocence/purity through the story of Vertumnus and Belides where the flower gets its scientific name, and purity the popular phrases like “fresh/clean as daisies”.
Feverfew- Feverfew are daisy-like flowers with bright yellow middles and white petals, with yellow-green leaves in a feathered arrangement, that grow in small bushes together. Feverfew is edible but many will steer clear of it as it has a very bitter taste. It’s often made into teas and used in pastries. Although feverfew isn’t used to reduce fevers anymore, there are still many health benefits and medicinal uses of the plant, some people even calling it ‘medieval aspirin’. People will take feverfew pills or apply a poultice to relieve pain from arthritis and inflammation. A poultice can also be applied to minor cuts, scrapes, and bug bites. Teas can be made for headaches and some use it to help with menstrual pain. Feverfew is also known to show some skin benefits by reducing redness and inflammation. Feverfew may increase bleeding as it acts similar to an anticoagulant, because of this it is advised that if you are taking a blood thinner like aspirin, Dabigatran (Pradaxa), Heparin (Innohep), or others, you talk to your doctor before taking feverfew. This plant has more medicinal uses than references in mythology but I did find a few references to it being believed to be able to save the life of someone that had fallen from the Parthenon, a temple to Athena, which gave it the scientific name parthenium.
Healing, curse-breaking, love
Lesser celandine- Also known as pilewort or sometimes fig buttercup. Pilewort is a plant on the buttercup family that has dark, heart-shaped leaves and bright yellow flowers with glossy petals. Despite its pretty exterior, touching the plant could cause rashes or blistering especially when the plant is crushed. Ingesting the plant can cause dizziness, vomiting, and worse. While there may be ways to cook out the toxins, I cannot advise anyone to consume this plant without proper experience. This plant is also known as the spring messenger as it's one of the first plants to bloom in the spring. Lesser celandine was referenced a lot in literature, most being about love and foreshadowing happiness alike how it signals spring.
Joy, love, Spring associated magick
Maple seed pods- Maple seeds, also known as helicopters or samaras, are the seed of maple trees, as one would assume. These are winged pods consisting of a papery tissue surrounding a single seed that is usually joined together in pairs of two. The seeds are edible once the outer covering has been removed and taste better while young, becoming bitter as they mature. Some say that smaller pods taste sweeter and larger ones taste more bitter. They're good in roasts, stir-fries, and salads. They can also be dried and pounded into flour ! Much of what we know about maple seeds are simply culinary and there's not much information on their medicinal uses. The majority of the correspondences of maple seed pods come from maple trees which represent balance and longevity. They also are associated with childhood after the many many years of children playing with these helicopter-like seeds.
Longevity, growth, balance, youth
Mulberries- Mulberries come in three different colours which are red, white, and black. Different mulberries grow on different mulberry trees. Black mulberry trees have an orange-y-toned bark with toothed, heart-shaped leaves. White/red mulberry trees have a greyish bark with large, deeply lobed, oval-shaped leaves. Mulberries look very similar to blackberries but longer with each cluster of fruit containing a seed. Mulberries are edible, black ones taste the best and can be both sour and sweet and the white/red ones are duller in flavour but sweet. These are made into jams, syrups, wines, sweets, sorbets, really anything sweet and it tastes great ! These berries are more known for their culinary uses but some studies suggest that they can help reduce cholesterol and improve digestion. In Greek/Babylonian mythology, red mulberries came from white mulberries that were stained red from the deaths of the star-crossed lovers Pyramus and Thisbe which gave them the association of love and death.
Love, death, faith, wisdom
Osage oranges- Also known as horse apples or hedge apples. Osage oranges are a yellow-green fruit with a very rough and bumpy peel. These oranges grow on trees called Maclura pomifera. The wood of these trees are used for very good firewood and yellow-green dyes. The Osage natives would use the wood from the tree for many things like bows and boats as it’s very flexible. The roots of the trees are sometimes made into water infusions to help with eye conditions. People have also used the wood, or even sat out the fruit, to deter insects. Osage oranges are edible but most people, and even animals, will avoid eating them due to their dry and bitter taste. They taste like very bitter and citrus-y cucumbers. These oranges can cause skin irritation to some.
Warding, protection, strength
Pinecones- Pinecones are geometric cones that come from conifer pine trees that produce pollen or seeds depending on their sex. Pinecones symbolize fertility and life in many cultures and have been used in artwork for centuries. The pineal gland in the brain was named after pinecones because of its shape, this gland is sometimes referred to as the “third eye” and some believe that it acts as a witch’s eye would; this is how pinecones were tied to the idea of enlightenment and rebirth as well as the fact that they have been around for so long. Some conifer cones are edible (some aren't!) but they are very tough to chew so you must boil them before eating, pinecone jam has been commonly made from young cones. Pine has been used in teas, tinctures, resins, and many other things to treat coughs, allergies, and help with sinus infections.
Prickly lettuce- a quite tall, red stem that contains latex with large tooth-shaped leaves that have prominent veins and spikes lining its edges and main vein on its underside. When it blooms it has small, pale yellow flowers. This plant is edible and is pretty much used like normal lettuce while having a slightly bitter taste, as usual, this gets less noticeable as it matures. Leaves can be eaten in salads or cooked/steamed and the root can be made into a tea. The latex substance that comes out of the leaves and stem when injured is called lactucarium which is known as lettuce opium due to its sedative and pain-relieving properties; the process of harvesting this substance is tedious. This can be used to help people sleep, relax, and relieve pain. Lettuce in general has a great amount of significant historical usage. Lettuce came to be associated with sex because an Egyptian fertility god, Min, was associated with lettuce as it was known as an aphrodisiac that was ritualistically ingested before sex. These effects were due to the lactucarium. In Hellenism, when Adonis died he was laid on a bed of lettuce along with other fast-growing plants. In festivals for him, they would burn withered lettuce and mourn his death, this related lettuce to death.
Necromancy, offerings for the deceased, fertility, sex
Queen Anne's Lace- Also known as wild carrot. A tall flowering weed with a thin, stiff stem and tiny white, clustered flowers. The flowerhead consists of a bunch of separate flowers, some plants may have a singular purple/pink flower. Queen Anne's lace's root is edible which is actually where it gets the names wild carrot and Daucus Carota, it's good steamed and boiled. It is pretty stringy and if you wait too long to harvest it can become very hard and woody. This plant is NOT safe to consume for those who are pregnant ! The stem is known to cause skin irritation and rashes to people with sensitive skin. Despite being edible, most wouldn't suggest eating it because it looks almost identical to poison hemlock which if consumed could be fatal. It also looks a ton like wild celery but that's less of an issue. Historically, the seeds of wild carrot were used as an abortant in a "morning after pill" type of way. Wild carrot was named Queen Anne's Lace after Queen Anne of England who was a great lace maker, there is a legend that when making lace one day she pricked her finger then a single drop of blood fell on it and that's why the flower has a single purple flower. Because of the association to Queen Anne, some would use it to try to attract love or make themselves look more beautiful. Wild carrot is also called bird's nest or the bishop's flower which ties it to themes of safety and sanctuary.
Beauty, love, glamours
Rosebay willowherb- Also commonly known as fireweed for its appearance or bombweed because it began to heavily grow in bomb craters/sites in WWII around the UK. The rosebay willowherb has tall reddish stems and willow-like leaves with long magenta flowers. Traditionally it's been used in teas, jellies, and salads. It has a pretty bitter taste so you need to harvest it young and cook it before eating. It's used in teas for its demulcent properties, to treat certain stomach conditions, and has been used in skincare because of its astringent properties. There’s not much folklore about this plant but it’s well known for appearing after events that devastated an area, it was one of the first plants to start growing after Mt. St. Helens, after colonizers burnt down forests, and after bombs dropped in WWII. I’ve also heard it’s bad luck to pick its flowers, either stating that a storm will occur or your mother will fall ill.
Courage, perseverance, change, bad luck
Stinging nettle- tall, heart-shaped, toothed leaves. The leaves are covered in small stinging hairs that when touched will inject chemicals into one's skin and cause slight stinging sensations. Young stinging nettle has widely been used in dishes as soaking/cooking it takes away the sting. It is very similar to spinach in taste, texture, and nutrients. Ointments are made to treat arthritis and inflammation, teas are made from dried leaves and flowers to treat allergies and hayfever. Poultices of the leaves were used for stiff joints and muscle pain by helping blood circulation in that area. Be wary of using stinging nettle on your skin as it can cause rashes and blisters. Some Native American groups used it in teas as a stomach tonic. In Celtic folklore, it was said to keep evil spirits and illness at bay, it also says that when you see thick strands of nettle it means that faeries are nearby.
Binding, protection from baneful magick and evil spirits, strength, curse breaking
Sweetgum seed pods- Also known as witch’s burrs or witch balls. Sweetgum seed pods are hard, spikey seed pods with small holes where the seeds once were. These fall from sweetgum trees after they mature and disperse their seeds. These aren’t edible nor really used for any medicinal purpose. They’re often placed around plants to protect them from animals. Magickally, you can place them around your space to ward off unwanted energies and entities or even grind them into a powder for banishing or protection. These things hurt like hell to step on so they’re also good to use in baneful protection magick, like baneful wards or return to senders.
Protection, warding, binding, baneful protection
Violet- There are many species of violets so I'm going to cover them in a broad sense. Violets are usually small, light purple flowers with short stems, little shrubbery, and heart/kidney/scalloped leaves. In many species of violet both the leaves and flowers are edible and contain high levels of vitamins A and C, but make sure to properly identify your plant before consuming. These can be made into teas, sweets, salads, etc. Violet syrup is my favourite ! Some leaves in wild violets will taste quite soapy, so try them out before cooking them into anything. Violet leaves have cooling and anti-inflammatory properties so they are used in poultices, salves, compresses, and oils for scrapes, burns, and bug bites. Violets have traditionally been used in teas or tonics for coughs and swollen lymph nodes. There is a lot of folklore and mythology that this flower is a part of. Violets are largely associated with modesty and innocence and this stems from two main stories; Persephone was said to be picking violets when Hades kidnapped her to live in the underworld and in Greek mythology when Apollo pursued a nymph, Artemis/Diana turned her into a violet to protect her. There are also stories in The Bible that associate violets with modesty like when Archangel Gabriel tells Mary she is pregnant, violets bloom around her. This is why sometimes when a child dies, violets are put on their grave as a representation of their innocence. There are many other popular stories of violets turning to tears when someone is crying. They’re also associated with love from a story of Venus and Cupid and were believed to be an aphrodisiac in the Middle Ages.
Femininity, respect, wisdom, modesty, divination, love
𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊
Disclaimer !!: Before you consume or use a plant medicinally, make sure you are 100% sure on the ID. Speak with a doctor before using a plant, especially if you’re pregnant, and make sure you aren’t allergic and that it won’t interact with any of your medications. Do not substitute legitimate medications with herbal remedies, this is not medical advice. Always do your own research before consuming or using a plant medicinally. Some of the plants, while generally safe for humans, are not safe for animals and children. As a general rule of thumb, younger greens will taste better. As the plant matures and bears fruit it will typically become more bitter, so the best time to harvest most of these is before it bears fruit. Make sure to avoid areas treated with pesticides and always wash your takings before use. And make sure you're never over-harvesting, always make sure there's another 'patch' of the plant your taking !!
Do you know any spells that use jars? As I've got loads of spair jars. Cheers
Oh, so so many my dear. I’ve made this list for you and it’s by no means the ultimate compilation of jar spells, but there’s a nice selection here that I hope provides you with some inspiration or something.
Love & Self Love:
Self Love Jar.
Self Love Charm.
Aphrodite Healing Self Love Jar.
Lavender Self Love Jar.
Torque’s Self-Love Motivation Jar.
Love Attraction Jar.
Self-Love Jar.
To Strengthen a Romantic Relationship.
Self-Care Spell Jar.
Cuddle Jar!
Happiness & Mood Improvement:
Happiness Spell Jar.
Healing & Broken Hearts:
Sew Closed Your Heart Jar Spell.
Friendship:
Friendship Spell Jar.
Luck & Good Fortune:
Luck Spell Jar.
Luck and Fortune Spell Jar.
Sleep & Dreams:
Restful and Peaceful Sleep Spell Jar.
Free Me From My Nightmares.
Remember Your Dreams.
Nightmare Jar.
Pleasant Dreams Jar/Bottle.
Glamours:
Aphrodite Glamour Water.
Queen Grimhilde’s Glamour Jar for Intimidating Looks.
Integrating your craft into your living space can be a daunting task. Unless you’re just a stellar housekeeper your home is likely at least a little messy all of the time. Unopened mail might still be sitting on the counter, that pile of laundry that you just didn’t get to this week is still on the floor or maybe you’ve just got a little extra clutter from too many missed spring cleanings. Despite how much these things can make your space feel distinctly un-magical, making your home into a sacred place for yourself can be quite simple.
Turning your home into a witchy haven isn’t for everyone, there are a lot of reasons to give it a go and everyone is going to have different motivations (or no motivation, which is ok too). Your home is where you base yourself. You sleep, eat and come together with loved ones there. Using witchcraft to ensure that space is always positive and energetic can improve the quality of the time you spend there, help you unwind more easily and give you a place of stillness in the midst of the chaos of life. Personally, I turned my home into a magic space to bring more focus on my craft, I take more time writing in my spiritual journal, traveling the realms and just generally maintaining my craft when my home looks and feels like a witchy home.
Start off just working on one room. It can be your kitchen, bedroom, living room, any room that you spend a decent amount of time in. It isn’t necessary to do a huge cleaning and wear yourself out, doing a little bit here and there can make a substantial improvement over time and you’ll be a lot more likely to continue maintaining your home instead of getting worn out and giving up.
Now, I’m certainly not your expert on cleaning, for those of you who really need help with this step I suggest checking out Unfuck Your Habitat. Personally, I like to do a deep cleaning using as few chemical cleaners as I can manage, I make all of my own cleaning agents with the purpose of magical as well as physical cleansing.
Cleaning Recipes
All Purpose Disinfectant Spray/Wash:
I use this for almost everything. I mix up 10 parts warm water with one part white vinegar and a few drops of essential oil OR I let the vinegar water sit with fresh or dried herbs in it for about a week before using it to clean. The herbs you use here can change depending on what your space needs. For example I use lavender for protection, purification and peacefulness. Basil draws wealth and soothes tempers between lovers. Orange is good for luck and wealth (though NOT good for cats so if you have kitties stay away from orange oil!). And mint is good for healing. This is great for wiping down counters, cleaning windows and mopping.
Shower Cleaner:
Cleaning showers is one of my least favorite tasks and trying to do it with safe cleaning products can be a nightmare but I’ve got a solution that does the trick. This isn’t so much a magical cleaning product (though I’m sure you could turn it into one) but it’s certainly a handy one to have around. Mix one part warm white vinegar with one part liquid dish soap in a spray bottle. It does require a bit of scrubbing if your shower is bad but compared to every other DIY shower cleaner I’ve tried it’s a miracle.
Floors
Sweeping has long been used by witches as a method of cleansing our homes magically and while a lot of sources will tell you to reserve a broom for the task and to sweep just above the floor to properly cleanse the area I just do it all at once. Who has time to sweep twice? I can do the same magical task with a little intent and focus while I’m also cleaning up pesky crumbs and cat hair.
Vacuuming is perhaps a less common way to tidy up the energy of a room but I find it works just as well as sweeping does! I make sure that when I empty a vacuum bag or dustpan I do it in the can outside to make sure I’m not just shuffling energy around in my house.
Mopping is another excellent mundane cleaning task for witches, especially when it comes to entryways and exits to the house. In addition to picking grime up off of your floor your mop water can be charged and used to lay down spells. I like using herbs for my mop water usually but once a year in the spring I mop with sun charged water to bring the vibrant spring/summer energy into my house and once a year in the fall I mop with moon charged water to welcome the introspective fall/winter energy in.
Doors and Windows
Doors and windows are important, they both protect our homes from the unwanted and welcome us in every day. When I make a magical wash for my doors and windows I like to use cinnamon, for protection, healing and enhancing my craft or, if I feel like I need a serious boost on my home protection or I need to break a curse I use chili pepper, which has the added bonus of strengthening love ties. In addition both of these are bug repellant.
One suggestion I would make is when you are cleaning your house you should try to have windows open. This allows fresh air to circulate into your home and it allows an outlet for all of the stagnant energy that you’ll be stirring up. Doors can be left ajar as well if you aren’t worried about pets taking themselves outdoors. Obviously this isn’t something you can do all the time, very hot or very cold weather would put a lot of strain on you heating/AC bill and it’s always best not to let the rain in.
Immediately post cleaning is a good time to place sigils on doors and windows as well. I like to use my Binding Chalk to make a line just in front of doors and windows, it acts very similar to having a line of salt in the same place.
Bedrooms
Bedrooms can be an excellent place to do magic. If you share a bedroom with a lover spells to enhance your relationship are favored. Tucking away herbal pillows or lighting candles can draw honesty and good communication for you and your partner or you could try something a little spicier and use spells intended to ignite a little passion.
If your bedroom is a solitary place it can be an excellent place to do dreaming magic, to meditate and to do spells for gentle self improvement.
In a child’s bedroom protective magic or sweet dream spells would be a good idea. A lot of small children have a fear of monsters and when I was little my parents would use “monster spray” every night to help me sleep. I know now that it was just water but infuse the water with lavender and it could easily double as a sleep aiding and protective spell.
A Few More Magical Home Ideas
Enchant the mirrors in your house to give everyone who looks into them a boost in their self esteem/body image.
Place a candle on the stove to symbolize the hearth fire tradition
Make a magic welcome mat that draws in good company and keeps away the bad
Pay close attention to the sort of energy your decor creates and adjust it to help create the energy you want in your home.
Is the TV the center of your home? Electronics can drastically change the feel of a space, try moving it to a less central spot and focus your rooms on something else
Playing music and changing the scent in a room can suffice for a quick energetic shift. Try setting a small pot of water with cranberries, orange peel, cinnamon or mint on the stove to simmer.
Get rid of stuff! I say this for people like myself who have trouble letting go of anything. Your stuff hangs onto energy. Gifts from people you don’t like? Stop being polite and letting their energy invade your house. Chuck it. Anything that reminds you of past relationships can go. In fact, cleaning house post breakup is super important! Get rid of any lingering reminders, wash their smell out of everything and clean your mattress thoroughly.
If it’s broken do away with it. I know, I know, you’re planning to get around to fixing it eventually. How often do you actually do that though? If you aren’t willing to sit down right now to fix it you probably won’t ever get to it. Throw it away or give it to someone who will have a use for it.
If you haven’t used it in the last year, chances are you won’t use it in the next year either. Get rid of it.
Make a habit of de-cluttering in small ways every day. Don’t let the mail pile up, clean up dishes left in odd rooms, pick up laundry, and just generally put things back where they belong. This goes a long way toward keeping the energy flow moving through your home smoothly.
Put bells on your doors. Bells help to clear energy, every time you open a door that room gets a little cleansing boost.
Cleaning your house can be turned into more than just house magic. You can visualize yourself sweeping away worries or scrubbing old habits that aren’t serving you away as well.
Bake bread. This really falls more under the heading of kitchen witchcraft but the smell of baking bread (or cookies!) wafting through your home can alter the energy in lovely ways and it’s also great for bringing prosperity to the house.
Hopefully this gives you guys some ideas and motivation to start making your home a little more magical :) Remember not to overdo it, making a home is a constant, gradual process, not a marathon. My ask box is always open if anyone has questions!
find some stuff to do magic about (feat. practicing sorcery is fun and good)
Do you want to do magic? Yes. Do you know what to do magic on? Maybe not. Here is a post for that. Take what you like and leave the rest behind.
Confront your learned helplessness face on because I'll bet money that there's a shit ton of stuff in your life you'd change if you hadn't trained yourself to pave it over just to make your highway of life a little less bumpy.
Let me tell you something I believe. I believe that most all of us have been trained to think that:
wanting things to go well,
wanting to be happy,
wanting little joys and pleasures in life,
and wanting not to be aggravated by the small things
somehow makes us weak, lacking, immature, or insecure,
or even worse,
that putting up with bullshit is somehow automatically makes us a better person, as if we've all got a cosmic thermometer that won't ding "good person!" until we've had it up to here with bullshit and then still force ourselves to grin and bear it.
"If I do magic to shorten the Starbucks drive-through doesn't that make me impatient? I don't want to use magic as spiritual bypassing in order to avoid my flaws."
Well then. Far be it from me to decry the kratophany of Prometheus getting his liver pecked out by eagles every day, manifest in your sacred sacrifice of having your minutes pecked out of your day, one by one, as you wait in line.
Make a list. Keep it with you. On paper, on your phone. Doesn't matter. It's a list of things you'd like to change. Little fleeting things that rear their head only for a second or so before our industrial-powered steamrollers smash it into the ground. Big things that you stew over day to day.
No problem is too petty. No splinter in your side is too insignificant. Betty at the office blows her nose every day at 8:15am and if you have to hear it one more time you are going to burn the building down? Put it on the list.
Do you have to leave 20 minutes early for work on Thursdays because a freight train blocks the freeway for five minutes and your city backs up like Betty's nose? What is magic going to do, rearrange the city's entire traffic patterns? Maybe so. Who cares. That's magic's problem, not yours. Put it on the list.
Have your eye on quite a cute designer bag? Does it cost your monthly rent? Put it on the list.
Learn to stare your life in the eye again with the verv of someone who has just found a reality-warping gun with unlimited ammunition. Game night gets cancelled too often? You never remember to use your pizza coupons? You can never remember to get ginger ale at the store? Put it on the list.
Feed yourself what ails you like a crab going absolutely bonkers in a plankton-filled tank.
just do some of that normal "witchy" stuff, why not
Protections: Not only for spirits and stuff!
Against unwanted solicitors
Against your room mate's creepy partner coming over
Against debt collectors finding your new phone number
Against surprise quizzes in your course
Against nightmares
And from time to time a sorcerer does like a good house ward. Experiment with yours, why not? Waiting until you're under attack to learn how to put up protections is like waiting until you're drowning to learn swimming. Sure, the sheer adrenaline-fueled terror might get you somewhere - or it might get in the way.
You don't normally use altars? Build one, why not. Build secret ones in shoe boxes. Experiment with altars and compound magic.
Perhaps you'd like a mini spellcasting kit to go? I don't know if making one counts as doing magic, but it's fun to make them.
Why not develop and prepare an oil or incense blend that must steep for a few months before it's ready? You don't need it now, right? So that means it's prime time to make things that are supposed to "mature" before use.
And hey, what's the deal with cleansing? A lot of people make fun of it now. Some people say it's important and necessary. Why not get really into cleansing and develop your own take? Practice gentle cleansing, nuclear cleansing, cleansing with pure energy and cleansing with candles, cleansing with cleaning products and cleansing with joy.
casting a spell right now is not the same thing as activating it right now and you can still gain a lot of experience in magic without releasing spells into the wild
I think that a lot of people think of spells as I light the candle and the spell is activated and it goes and does the thing, so if there is no Thing right now, then I can't cast the spell,
whereas if you reframed it as I am creating a spell-creachur that will hibernate in this little vessel until I spill it out into the world,
you may actually find that there are dozens of spells for you to actively develop, experiment with, cast, learn from, and passively benefit from - without necessarily needing any of them right now.
And the benefit is, if you don't actually need it right now, that takes a ton of pressure off of you. If you're not acting out of desperation, experimentation can be very fun indeed.
What about the most intense jaw-breakingly stupid strong protective amulet you've ever conceived of? Make it, why not. Make five prototypes on your journey to the strongest danged protection amulet this side of social media.
Who cares if you don't need them? Maybe some day you'll meet someone who does. Or, you know, magic is fun and doing it is its own reward.
What about a talisman for dreamwork and astral travel? Make something that reeks so intensely of the moon that it launches people out of their bodies just by walking past it.
Decide to perfect the most dazzling money-drawing candle spell. Make that your thing. You don't need cash right now? No worries; donate it to charity.
Have fun. Experiment. Made something that came through a little too hard and now it's causing problems? What a wonderful opportunity to learn how to disassemble a spell vessel.
Make yourself a cabinet full of enchantments. Learn how to contain the energy radiating off of all those enchantments. Realize you need more space and learn to combine multiple similar enchantments into one vessel.
make trusting friends who will let you cast on them.
Okay so we all know those aesthetic correspondence lists we see everywhere are nigh on useless (/hj) (they're usually a hodgepodge of associations from various points of origin with no disclosure as to where these things come from and don't do anything to explain the nuance of identifying magical associations on items(/gen)) for anyone who's hoping to advance their craft. They can be great starting points when you don't know what a thing is good for. But imo they shouldn't be the end point.
I've seen some very good discussions on how these correspondence lists lack (/gen). A post coming through saying, "Hey money isn't green in all countries, so it's very American to associate green with wealth," isn't really uncommon. I've seen threads talking about how personalizing your correspondences is superior to using generic lists.
What I haven't seen is in-depth discussion about how to do that. And I'm guilty (/lh) of it, too. I'll point out that ditching the correspondence lists helped my craft, and say it's important to look at what spell components mean to you, but then I never really talk about how to look at what they mean to you.
So, let's take a quick look at the questions I ask when I'm figuring out what I personally can use a component for in a spell or working.
What are the mundane uses of this item? What physical qualities does it have, and what mundane purpose does it lend itself well to?
If I'm looking for strength under pressure, a diamond is going to be a better option than a stick of chalk. If I'm looking for the ability to be flexible and strong, a spring is better than a diamond.
What are some common uses for this item in magic, folk traditions, and superstition? Where do those associations come from? Do I have any connection or attachment to those associations?
Back to green for wealth. That's super common. It's from places where money is colored green. Money isn't green in huge portions of the world. Sometimes, it's red, or multi-colored, or metal. Do I have any green money? No? Then why would I associate green with money?
Do I have any personal memories or emotional reactions to this item? What does it mean to me?
My mom taught me to garden by helping me plant mint when I was 4 years old. I didn't realize it was a weed that I wouldn't be able to kill. I just remember being out in the dirt with her every day, looking meticulously over my mint to make sure it was healthy, didn't have bugs, wasn't overcrowded, and had enough water. I remember eating those leaves fresh off the plant and feeling so proud of myself. Mint has very strong personal associations to success, accomplishment, and nurturing family bonds for me.
Ngl, it's a long process, and even when you've figured out some personalized correspondences, they're worth revisiting over time.
And you don't need to know all this for every single thing you use.
Sometimes, roses are good for love and I haven't dug deeper into that, is good enough. But if you're feeling like you've hit the high end of beginner and don't know how to move to intermediate practices, this can help.
Is this necessary to be intermediate or advanced in your practice? Hell no. Do what works for you and what you need in your practice. It's just something that drastically improved my own workings, and I wanted to share in some more detail.
I love making small altars to take with me, I have quite a few, but lately I've been feeling the itch to make a new one. @breelandwalker posted an article that really jumpstarted the creative process again. So I present to you: the travel altar challenge! I broke up the steps to creating a pocket altar into 19 weeks (or days if you have the spoons) and I'm planning on making a new travel/pocket altar for myself.
Will you join me in the challenge?
The list below is my basic list with some ideas added to hopefully inspire you. Feel free to leave out what doesn't work for you, add what you're missing and do things out of order if needed. Every number is a day/week, depending on if you want to go fast or slow.
pick a theme and/or purpose:
This can either be for a specific power or deity, or can be for a specific kind of magic, such as sea witchery or kitchen witchery. You can also choose for a specific purpose instead, such as when you’re staying in a hotel/family home, or one that fits into your planner. Or if you want to make it more challenging, your theme can be the Starry Night by van Gogh, or an altar completely made of paper or clay.
make a list of what must be on/in an altar
What are the necessities you need when practising magic? What would you like the altar to have?
choose a container
Now that you have your list of necessities, you can guess a bit how big of an altar you need. You can choose a box, altoid tin, jewellery case, cosmetics case, crocheted bag, whatever you can think of.
decorate the outside if needed/wanted
decorate the inside if needed/wanted
representation of deity/spirit/animal/mythological creature/yourself
a small focal icon for your altar. This can be an artwork glued into the lid or on a scrabble tile, a carved bead, a small statue made from clay, or simply a picture of yourself. Get creative!
divination method
a tiny divination method that fits the altar. Think tiny tarot cards, a pendulum from a shell or ring, tiny runestones.
cleansing method
this can be a herb blend that you sprinkle around, a cleansing spray, incense
offering blend
either for your deities/spirits, or for the world around you as a thank you for using the space.
charging/anointing oil or water
for when you need to make something you found – or yourself – more sacred or powerful
representation of the elements
painted rocks or wooden disks, a feather, a leaf, a candle, and a shell, or instead of the elements something for the seasons, or the phases of the moon.
a SAFE candle holder and candle
Fire safety is important, especially when you wish to use it outside or in someone else’s space.
incense
something fragrant to set the tone. And again, fire safety is important!
altar cloth
a thrifted scarf, a doily, a scrap of fabric, something to create a working surface with.
add a text/prayer/poem
this can be on the inside of the lid, rolled up as part of the offering blend on a tiny piece of paper, or simply folded up as a reminder and to read aloud.
representations for your altar/sacred space boundaries
painted stones or wooden disks, shells, specific crystals, anything to make a ring of protection for you and your work
add some beads
prayer/focus beads, power jewellery, or strands of beads for charging, or perhaps a witch’s ladder.
Put it all together
is there something you’re missing? Did you have everything on your list? Or are some things too big and do they need to be switched out?
Cleanse and charge your new altar!
Please join me in being creative this spring. Tag me if you make something, I would love to see it and share it with the rest of witchblr.
Knives are a martial and potent form of the normally used Scissors. Whereas scissors are used for protection, healing and cutting away, knives are able to cause harm and act as a much more aggressive form of protection. This is where this ritual comes in mind:
I would say that the knife would be a major aspect of this ritual. I would save and buy a new knife on a Tuesday (the day of Mars). The knife can then be placed on a piece of red or black fabric, with items such as garlic, red peppers, protective herbs, powders, oils and sigils. The Knife can be rubbed down with protective oils and a chant such as the following be said:
All you who act against me, seek my harm, you who raise your hands to harm me, your tongue to speak against me, your thoughts to harm me, those who attempt in any way to bring harm, disaster or pain to me shall be cut, thou shall be cut once, twice, thrice, pepper in your wounds, your eyes, your mouth, always burn, salt in your eyes, burn. Your evil will be yours to bear, yours to feel, your undoing.
The knife could then be sealed in the red cloth with the items and buried under the front door, or it could be placed in a pot of soil by the front door. It can then be given offerings to keep the spirit strong and dedicated.
“Dust this powder on your sails and the winds wil favor you” -markl
Heyo! As I mentioned earlier this account was meant to be an online grimoire that would teach y’all how to make TV spells real! This is one of the first ones I made but it works pretty well.
Ingredients:
Dandelion seeds
Star Anise
Cottonwood fluff
Gossamer (optional)
Sand (preferably from a riverbank or ocean beach)
Dried clover (petals or leaves)
Confectioners sugar (optional)
Assembly:
Grind dandelion, anise, pollen and dried clover with mortar into a fine powder
Add your cottonwood and mix again
If you’ve decided to use confection sugar, add that now for sweet travels
Now add sand and gossamer and grind one last time
Once you’ve finished apply it where needed and store in a solid satchet.
I’ve used this on luggage, plane tickets, veils, tires, actual sails, dusted it on my boots, slapped it on talismans and now I keep it in my coat pocket.
It must be working too, or else the gods are willing it, I’ve never bumped into any trouble in my car, passed my drivers test on the first go, never had a flight delayed or cancelled, our hotels have got our rooms ready and none of my flights have featured crying babies. So. In contrast I feel it works just fine.
You could also use this for Aeromancy if you’re into the Artes Magicae 👉👉 blessings be and all that 🤗
Now I love a travel sachet. There's definitely been times where I've built spells into small little sachet baggies, including things like protection items. Mainly to make sure that my bags “came with me” so to speak – or eventually made their way back to me (which definitely was a thing one time, okay two times). So I don't exactly have a 100% success rate that perhaps this person is saying for my own particular travel sachets, but you know I am always suspicious of 100% guarantees coming out of spellwork.
There's not a lot to go on here with how exactly the powder works – besides of course the sugar (for sweet travels). So it can be a little bit harder to understand exactly what we are using these ingredients for and what their general purposes are in these spells.
In googling randomly what the correspondences are for each of the items (Dandelion seeds, Star Anise, and Cottonwood Fluff) a lot of it has to relate to the psychic development and a bit of luck. I mean Clover would also be lucky here. Essentially what we're building it a psychic lucky sachet for travels here. And before anyone jumps all over me about “that's not what the correspondences are and how dare you presume that's the meaning-”
This is what happens when you have spells that do not clearly label paradigm or purpose of ingredients within spells. People go to google, by people I mean literally anyone can, and will look up what the purpose of the item is based on a general knowledge or assessment of the situation. I can tell you I checked in my Flora Dictionary to see if there was a language of flowers being tied in here, and the most I got here was adoration and fondness of beauty which wasn't exactly what the sachet was doing now was it?
When it comes to deciphering what a spell is, or what it's doing, sometimes we do not have the person who made it to turn to in order to figure out exactly what it's doing. Logically, I can guess that sand (from the ocean / river) is something of a grounding source and because it's near water that “moves” or travels – that's why it was chosen over sand that is like at a desert. Though I must say any dirt for me has worked on the “get me back to the ground” for air travel. But I spell things for like “Let me return to the earth safely” or “let me touch the grass of my homeland again” - not necessarily for “comfort” - which might be a wrong headed thing on my side.
And if there's some concern about “But Sec why are we picking apart a spell like this! Shouldn't we just do it and see how it works!” Sure, that's definitely something I've advocated before. But in this exercise of Nanowrimo I'm walking through a lot of the spells and what they are /doing/ as spells. How they function as /spells/ and what they are built in terms of their ingredients and their structure. I'm looking at it a lot more closely than a just fuck it hold my beer kind of methodology.
I think in some cases, this is a pretty standard piece of advice that people give around “doing spells from the internet you don't know what they are doing” is to investigate around what the purpose of the spell is, look at each ingredient and figure it out. So I'm just following general advice here while borrowing from my own experiences and practices to have this conversation.
Maybe there's no disagreement here, but I sense that when you start pulling apart a simple spell like this one, people might find that I'm being aggressive. Which I don't necessarily feel that way. I feel like the person has built this spell directly perpendicularly to how I do my sachets. So I'd want some more information around the way this particular spell is being built. I am curious because there may be things in here that could lean into in my own practices.
Like for instance, the Gossamer – which is spider's webs if you're not familiar. I feel like that should not be an optional ingredient – especially if it's cobwebs or spider webs from your own home. I have a whole part of my practice that is around how to deal with spiders because I have had business agreements with spider land spirits before. It's a very important part of my practice, and I had not thought to add Spider's Webs to my own sachets. But damn if that's not a great “get me back to my house” attachment into a spell. Especially if it's from a spider that you particularly know well. Aka I have three spiders in my house that I know where they roost and I regularly check in on.
If that's not the most fucking witchy stupid shit – I swear to god as I get older the more I fucking play into the stereotypes of a witch. Lmao. Anyway.
But Gossamer could function definitely differently in this spell. So let's say that it functions as a glue or as a catch or most importantly as something that stabilizes the spell. Connects them together, weaves the different items together.
Again the more I look at this spell, the less I think Gossamer is optional. The less I think that sand from a river / ocean is most needed.
I also do not necessarily like that we are grinding everything down to a fine powder – why? … Because it leaks. Some cloth sachets are not great at holding very fine powders. Unless we are putting it in a plastic baggie or unless we're putting it in like a small jar – it's not super useful to have your spell ingredients escaping. How do I know this? Because trial and error with sachets, my friends.
The salt has escaped, especially when it's very fine. Same with the dried herbs. And it's really annoying to have to figure out how to get it back into the sachet. I prefer to have my sachets to have bigger components, so that's why I include trinkets or some kind of large stone to hold onto the spell and also to prevent “escaping” from spells. Also I prefer to have cloth entirely for sachets especially for travel because glass breaks, plastic tears, cloth is a significantly easier thing for me to hold onto and ensure that it will make it through the journey.
So in this case, I think this particular spell speaks to a wide variety of other spells which are about ensuring that traveling is done safely and without issue. But I also want to just talk about the practical here.
And of course, I cannot overlook that this is Howl's Moving Castle reference – so … a star (man swallowed a star) … dandelion seeds / puff are blown all over the place and root where ever they land. Same with cottonwood fluff. Spider's webs from Sophie's cleaning -Ahaha I've tricked everyone who was in the comments writing to me about how it's obviously Howl's Moving Castle references. Ahhaahahah – anyway.
But I think a stronger reference to me would have been a knob or a dial since that's how Howl's door moved from place to place. I would have liked a different star reference – but I can be fine with that one. I would have also preferred something that was fire touched – Calcifer is the reason the whole thing moves, so like a piece of charred wood perhaps or a burn match. Something that would have been already used as fuel or could be seen as fuel for later.
Indeed I would have preferred that this powder be made in a circle marked in chalk or something like that (the scene where Howl moves the house to a new location / creates a new location), and given purpose. Though that's just to one location, and a general travels powder would lean more on the walking of the Castle rather than the door function.
Sometimes that leaned into the magic of Howl's world a bit more than just “moves with the wind” type magic, would be something that I personally would lean into a bit more with some spells. But I have the same conversation with other forms of pop culture magic that take a few elements, or a few symbols from other source and doesn't just fully tilt right into the references directly.
All in all, I think this is a perfectly fine powder for traveling. I would probably want to build something different for myself if I was borrowing on the Howl's moving castle reference. Maybe even include a page directly from the book or a printed paragraph describing the Castle moving from place to place – including burning that paper and then putting the ash into the sachet. Because I'm just like that alright – this is what I am like my friends.
I just wish the references and the lean in, the explanations were more than what they are currently.
I am genuinely not attempting to shame anyone for how they do their craft, I'm just hoping someone can explain something to me.
I saw a post on pintrest (it did not link anywhere so no I can't just ask the original creator) that was a little video clip of someone explaining they always cleanse jars prior to use with all of the following, in the following order:
Candle smoke
Moon water
Sea salt
Now, like I said, not shaming anyone who does multi-step cleansing like this prior to casting.
It just seems like over kill to me. I would get it if it were like, cleanse with each of the elements in turn, or here's all these different options for cleansing. I just don't understand the purpose of doing a triple cleanse each time you prep a jar for a spell, and I'd love to learn what the purpose is from anyone who has a similar methodology.
I could see if you're making a wash that you'd combine moon water + sea salt (which as of course, there's no explanation why these things would be cleansing in nature, nor the smoke, but here we are. Like why not regular salt? ??) to wash the jars out with. Like a little in the jar and swirl it I guess? And passing them through the FLAME (because this is what I do, but because I want something to be FIRE TOUCHED and BURNED so never you mind me and my folk ways), but not the smoke?
Like are doing a little wavey wavey or something else? Not sure here.
But what's the point in that because most jars are pretty neutral, and if you want it to be cleansed shove it out in some sunlight? Or let it bake in the heat? Or let it freeze? To neutralize it? Why we doing stuff?
It was the wave around the smoke thing. Like wiggle the candle inside a bit then circle the jar with it. Then they dumped moon water in and swished it around before drying it out. Finally they put a handful of sea salt and shook it before dumping the salt out.
Tbh I don't really do spell jars, but I'd cleanse a jar the same way I prep it for canning, by boiling it. I wish the video creator had given any context, because I'm just super curious as to the reason for the method, even though it's not one I'd use
I feel like the concept of cleansing has gotten so incredibly convoluted in the witchcraft community. I feel like a lot of people would benefit from taking a step back and deconstructing this very simple idea.
What's the point of cleansing something? To spiritually or symbolically clean it.
What are you cleaning off of the thing? Unwanted spiritual or symbolic remnants. Sometimes these remnants come from a previous association of the object, sometimes from a previous owner, sometimes just being around other things or people, and sometimes you're not sure if it's got something on it or not.
So how do you clean the thing? Literally any mundane method of cleaning can also be a spiritual or symbolic method of cleaning. Boil that shit, use soap, scrub it with sand, pour in salt, toss it in the oven, toss it in a fire, cover it in smoke, cover it in honey, cover it in bleach, etc, etc.
I tend to have a couple criteria for cleansing stuff.
Is this method safe on the material the object is made out of?
Is this symbolically appropriate for the kind of cleansing I'm doing and the thing I'm trying to cleanse off the thing.
I normally only cleanse something once, especially if it's something like a jar I bought from a store, but I do this for the same reason I clean new dishes I buy from a store. I have no idea who picked it up to look at it, or if some little kid put their mouth on it. Best to just give it a quick wash.
But there are situations where I'll do a few cleansings. Like, if something was preowned and generally just has a really bad feeling about it. For example, I have a pretty extensive collection of knives. One antique I picked up is Mercator K55K knife and it's heavily customized by the previous owner. Like the blade profile was reground into something much stabbyer, I found a little bit of gore in the handle that was hopefully from a fish or something, and the other bits of damage tell me this knife has had a long tough life. Also this is one of the few knives I own that I've accidentally cut myself with, repeatedly, even while being as cautious as I always am with my knives. Something feels off about this knife. So when I restored it I also cleansed the hell out of it. Smoke cleansings, vinegar wash, blessed water and soap, and blessed oil. Every step of the mundane cleansing was also a spiritual cleansing, because this knife has seen some shit. Honestly a cycle in the dish washer can't hurt.
Oh and I meant to mention but got on that knife side tangent. I have a potential solution to @asksecularwitch's smoke conundrum.
My hypothesis as to why smoke is cleansing is because it technically is, and has been used for mundane cleansing for as long as humanity has had access to it. Soot found in caves indicates that our early ancestors used smoke to drive bats and rodents out of caves we were trying to live in. There are some cultures especially in the colder places and dryer on earth who still smoke bathe to drive off parasites, kill bacteria and contribute to better hygiene in places where water bathing is difficult. Even now, smoke bathing is something a lot of people who do long term camping and bushcraft practice, and I've done it when I was younger and would spend a couple weeks camping with my friends and family.
So traditionally it's no quite the same kind of cleaning as water provides, but covering something in smoke does provide hygienic and sanitary benefits. And anything that can clean mundanely can clean spiritually. Being this is a very old way to cleaning, it makes sense it would become a ritualized practice long after it became an outdated mundane practice for most people.
I am not confused by smoke cleansing as this is a thing that I am very familiar with. Just to clarify here. I really hope that you didn't feel prompted to explain it to me because I'm over here being like wtf is this person doing all this e x t r a shit for? Maybe I could have phrased that better? Hmm?
Like I am VERY confused why we have a 3 step individual process over here for no reason. And with no explanation. Nor are we explaining why we're cleansing (aka WHAT it is that we are removing). and how all that shit is required to do that removing part.
Like, also, IDK why we're doing a smoke cleansing specifically FROM A CANDLE.
LIKE is that candle charged or some shit? Or is All smoke good? Then why not use Incense? Or like from a piece of paper or whatever?
Oh, yeah, no that's just the problem with 99% of witchy content online, and even in most of the books I've read. Nothing is really explained. You just get lots of "this is what you do because it's how you do it and how it's always been done". And because it was never broken down, explained or examined, my assumption would be people think the more cleansing the better.
It all sucks because I bet the person who made that pinterst post has actual reasons for why they do so much extra stuff, and I bet their personal reasons are super interesting and thought provoking with each step they take. And we'll never know.
And sorry, based on the wording I actually thought you just didn't know you could clean stuff with smoke. I've actually gotten into an argument over it's mundane uses because the person I was arguing with thought smoke was only a dirty thing that covers stuff in soot and thus smoke can't clean. But someone in the comments found that stuff interesting, so no time wasted on my part 😁
Yeah, part of it is also the media of the way pinterest and others (aka tumblr) posts stuff. It's inconsistently across time. A post or video could be plucked out of the ether and used as a conversation point - even if the person had explained it separately. (Not that that is particularly a BAD thing, but just explaining the mechanism of this kind of media).
So it makes explanations harder, posts require more padding around information gathering, etc etc. Conversations more painful because they aren't linear in time.
BUT in the end, we will never know!
Also, no worries, I was like wait why am I getting explained this - what happened here - what's going on. Lol. I was like maybe my implication that if you have a candle why are we JUST using the smoke here? (also some candles produce very little smoke as designed so it is double whammy for me) - why not use, idk the FLAME? Lol, it was just a very like what are we doing with this candle. Not a what are we doing with this smoke. Lol!
Glad you did get a good convo though!
Tough times lead to magical measures. Here's the recipe to my ultimate money jar that's beginner-friendly.
What you will need
A medium jar with a lid
A green candle
A pen
A bay leaf
A star anise pod
A dollar bill/paper cash
Twine
1 tbs basil
1 tbs cardamom
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs ground cloves
1 tbs nutmeg
1 tbs rice
1 tbs sea salt
(Optional: Citrine, Tiger's Eyes, or Clear Quartz piece)
What you will do
Cleanse your jar and money with your preferred method, then write "financial gain" onto your bay leaf.
Add in your salt, basil, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and rice in that order.
Place your bill flat against the counter and place the bay leaf on top. Roll the bill tightly and tie shut with twine, adding multiple knots. The more knots, the stronger the effect.
Add it into your jar and cap the entire affair, sealing it with green wax.
(If you have a crystal, press it on top of the wax while it's still hot and let it seal on.)
How to make the most out of it
Magic won't fix all of your problems. If you work, keep working: this just might help you get a bonus, raise, or large tip from a nice customer.
If you don't work or if you're on disability/waiting for disability, seek out ways to try and make a little cash under the table. This just may help you find something for an extra bit of gasoline or pet food. Keep in mind that spell jars are only as powerful as the intentions set behind them!
Blessed be y'all, and good luck out there <3
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